FEC Commissioner warns of coming blogging crackdown [fs]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Thu, 03 Mar 2005 17:16:53 -0500
To: <politech () politechbot com>
Subject: [Politech] FEC Commissioner warns of coming blogging crackdown [fs]

[I'd strongly encourage you to read the entire Q&A... --Declan]



http://news.com.com/2008-1028_3-5597079.html

The coming crackdown on blogging
March 3, 2005, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh

Bradley Smith says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and
online punditry are over.

In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could
risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a
campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press
release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished
by fines.

Smith should know. He's one of the six commissioners at the Federal
Election Commission, which is beginning the perilous process of
extending a controversial 2002 campaign finance law to the Internet.

In 2002, the FEC exempted the Internet by a 4-2 vote, but U.S. District
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last fall overturned that decision. "The
commission's exclusion of Internet communications from the coordinated
communications regulation severely undermines" the campaign finance
law's purposes, Kollar-Kotelly wrote.

Smith and the other two Republican commissioners wanted to appeal the
Internet-related sections. But because they couldn't get the three
Democrats to go along with them, what Smith describes as a "bizarre"
regulatory process now is under way.

[...remainder of Q&A snipped...]
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Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)

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