

Attn Bloggers: FTC's stringent new guidelines take effect Dec. 1st - miked
http://slate.com/id/2231808
From the article:<p><i>In new guidelines (PDF) released Oct. 5, the FTC put bloggers on notice that they could incur an $11,000 fine if they receive free goods, free services, or money and write about the goods or services without conspicuously disclosing their "material connection" to the provider. The FTC guidelines extend even to Facebook and Twitter posters. If you received a gratis novel from the publicity department of a publisher and posted a tweet about it without disclosing that the book was a freebie, you become an "endorser" in the FTC's view. It could—in the name of consumer protection—hit you with a fine. The 81-page guidelines, which also mandate stringent celebrity endorsements rules, will take effect Dec. 1.</i>
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unignorant
Enough arbitrary regulation, and everyone becomes a criminal...

The distinction between "news organization" and individual also makes very
little sense to me. When someone contributes original work via twitter or a
blog, why is this any less "news" than the writings of some large media
company? Perhaps some (many?) blogs admit a significant reduction in
"quality", but this seems a less than compelling argument. Just read the
editorial section of an arbitrary newspaper...

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miked
_The distinction between "news organization" and individual also makes very
little sense to me._

The lack of a significant distinction becomes even more obvious when you
consider a group of people sharing a blog vs. a media organization.

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coglethorpe
Yes, where is the line? Is TechCrunch a "news organization?" It's got a staff
and lots of traffic, but isn't it just a really successful blog? Is Joel on
Software or 37 Signals a blog or a very elaborate ad? How about Seth Godin or
Guy Kawasaki's which are really just ads for their own stuff. They get their
own stuff for free. Do they have to disclose that?

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miked
Here's a question I haven't seen raised yet: how does this affect commenters
on HN? Products and companies get plugged here all the time. It's hard to see
how commenting is much different than a blog post.

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DanielStraight
Thank you but I'm an adult. I'm perfectly capable of figuring out for myself
if a blog is crap. I don't need the federal government to tell me.

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jhancock
It should be interesting to see how this pans out. There may be an agenda at
play here to get a foot in the door of forcing media entities to acknowledge
who is paying for exposure. This is a serious problem with media, particularly
what we call news. I'm not sure this sort of regulation is the right approach
though, time will tell.

