[conservative in nyc]

Perhaps it's vague (typical wording to allow abuse), but it seems to identify that "paid" applies to the attempt to influence over 500 people.

Yes, it does have to attempt to influence over 500 people. But the effort must still be paid.

Under the prior section (A) which you omitted, "Paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying" is defined as "any PAID attempt in support of lobbying contacts on behalf of a client to influence the general public or segments thereof to contact one or more covered legislative or executive branch officials (or Congress as a whole) to urge such officials (or Congress) to take specific action with respect to a matter described in section 3(8)(A)"

If I recall the commentaries on this correctly, the problem is that the amount paid is irrelevant - it could be one cent or a million dollars, and a person could be swept up in the reporting requirements as long as all other conditions are met. But the grassroots lobbying firm DOES have to receive income of, spend, or agree to spend at least $25,000 for lobbying efforts during a quarter.

Make no mistake, whether I'm right or wrong about the paid issue, this proposed legislation was a piece of crap the last two or three times it was proposed, and still remains a piece of crap. I remember the last time it was posted, I kept on reading it and commentaries on it thinking about what to post before becoming frustrated and utterly confused about what "evil" the law was supposed to ban.

What I ultimately came away with is that Congresscritters seem not to like to get phone calls from those pesky folks who elected them.

[highlander_UW]

Make no mistake, whether I'm right or wrong about the paid issue, this proposed legislation was a piece of crap the last two or three times it was proposed, and still remains a piece of crap. I remember the last time it was posted, I kept on reading it and commentaries on it thinking about what to post before becoming frustrated and utterly confused about what "evil" the law was supposed to ban.

It is a trashy law...apparently the politicians see freedom of speech as problematic when it's utilized against them. I wonder what the general response will be if lots of people start becoming political prisoners in the US.

[etlib]

Yes, it does have to attempt to influence over 500 people. But the effort must still be paid.

Under the prior section (A) which you omitted, "Paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying" is defined as "any PAID attempt in support of lobbying contacts on behalf of a client to influence the general public or segments thereof

There is this:

REGISTRANT- For purposes of this paragraph, a person or entity is a member of a registrant if the person or entity

(i) pays dues or makes a contribution of more than a nominal amount to the entity;

(ii) makes a contribution of more than a nominal amount of time to the entity;
 

A "nominal amount of time" leaves a lot open to interpretation but you could be "paying" if you spend an hour or two a night posting to a forum.