FC: Run a political web site, go to jail? FEC rules challenged...

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

> From: George Paul-FPG060 <Paul_George-FPG060 () email mot com>
> To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
> Subject: FEC Says Running Partisan Web Site Counts as Political Contributi
>       on
> Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 10:27:16 -0500
> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2448.0)
>
> > > From Netsurfer Digest Volume 05, Issue 34 Sunday, October 24, 1999
> The reference may provide grist for the politech mill
>
> FEC Says Running Partisan Web Site Counts as Political Contribution
> A bizarre ruling by the US Federal Election Comission (FEC) says that anyone
> who expresses their political opinion on a Web site which runs on a computer
> worth over $250 may be violating federal election law. The law requires that
> people who spend over $250 donating cash or expressing their political views
> must disclose their identity and register their contact information. The law
> is designed to prevent fraud, which it does reasonably well, but this case
> seems to lead it onto a collision course with the First Amendment. By this
> logic, anyone who waxes political on a computer worth over $1000 will have
> to register as a political action committee. The victim of the ruling
> basically told the FEC to stick it where the sun don't shine and dared them
> to prosecute him. The story also has prompted the introduction of a bill in
> Congress exempting such expressions of political opinions from the reporting
> requirements. 
> <http://www.aclu.org/news/1999/n101399b.html>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Paul C George           817-245-7126
> WiLL NIU SCM/SST Lead   FPG060 () email mot com
> Fort Worth, TX
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------



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