Posted on 03/24/2006 10:00:27 PM PST by Jim Robinson
Edited on 03/24/2006 10:20:15 PM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]
The Internet's freewheeling days as a place exempt from the heavy hand of federal election laws are about to end.
Late Friday, the Federal Election Commission released a 96-page volume of Internet regulations that have been anticipated for more than a year and represent the government's most extensive foray yet into describing how bloggers and Web sites must abide by election law restrictions.
The rules (click here for PDF) say that paid Web advertising, including banner ads and sponsored links on search engines, will be regulated like political advertising in other types of media. They also say bloggers can enjoy the freedoms of traditional news organizations when endorsing a candidate or engaging in political speech.
If the regulations are approved by the FEC at its meeting on Monday, they will represent a substantial change from a far more aggressive version of the regulations seen by CNET News.com last year. An outcry from bloggers and even members of Congress appears to have caused FEC lawyers--who are under court order to regulate the Internet--to rethink the rules and adopt a more laissez-faire approach.
Though not all the implications of the 96-page document were immediately clear, one prominent advocate of Internet free speech said the rules are preferable over what could have happened.
"They've tried to take a light hand, and it looks like they might have succeeded," Brad Smith, a former FEC chairman who teaches law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, said in a telephone interview. Smith said, though, that he was not able to review the document in detail.
Also exempted from the sweep of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act--better known as the McCain-Feingold law--are e-mail messages sent to 500 or fewer people, posting a video unless it's a paid advertisement, and online activities done by volunteers even if the actions are undertaken without the knowledge of the campaign...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com
Government took a light hand when it first introduced the income tax. It took a light hand when it first started limiting smoking. As long as McCain-Feingold (aka Soupy Sales, Jr.) is the law of the land--thanks to politbureau members like these two senators and the majority of wimpy members of congress who voted for the unconstitutional act, and a wimpy president who signed it, and a majority of the supreme court who found it legitimate--it's just a matter of time before political websites like this one will be shut down prior to elections.
Yeah, the constant barrage of "required by court order" or "required by law" are going to be the death of us all. The government is more and more intrusive, and that's with Republicans in charge. With friends like them, we don't need enemies, especially enemies of the people like McCain.
Excellent stuff!
Alamo-Girl has the Ron Brown funeral .gif on the right
I have been posting those 2 .gifs myself all over the internet for several years
The "AF1.gif" on the left with some added text & a flying pig animation added
The Ron Brown funeral video - with a black horizontal band at bottom I added - over that pink band - text "JOKES TO TEARS" - "Tears.gif"
They are a bit "heavy" on bytes for the 56K dialup bunch
Hard to believe that Slick Willie had a photographer on the jet archiving his "Grope-A-Thon" 0 incidentally - she ended up with a cushy WH job after that day.....
The animated .gifs I am working on are to put accurate photos and events together in a small limited area on emails, webpages, etc.
To much text and too many "still" photos on one or more webpages is just too cumbersome and time-consuming for a web surfer to bother with
It therefore gets forgotten - as the NYT wants 911 to be
A bit of humor helps make things memorable also
Working on a Hillary/Suha animated photo sequence now - always a big favorite -
Amazing how motor-driven and digital cameras can zip out so many fast pix
Thanks for the links, and welcome to FR!
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