Bloggers narrowly dodge federal crackdown

March 25th, 2005 at 11:54 Björn Hallberg

CNET News.com - According to the March 10 document, political Web sites would be regulated by default unless they were password-protected and read by fewer than 500 people in a 30-day period. Many of those Web sites would have been required to post government-mandated notices or risk violating campaign finance laws.

Many Web sites that endorse or attack political candidates would have been required, for instance, to sport a permanent disclaimer.

The March 10 rule did exempt "any website, blog, or third-party content appearing on another person’s Web site, so long as the aggregate disbursements for the Web site, blog, or other Web site content do not exceed $250 per calendar year." A long list of expenses would have counted toward the $250 trigger, including hosting fees, Web design software, domain name registration, fees paid to PayPal, and any "other payments" related to the site.

So we got away this time. But recent developments cannot be misinterpreted. On the one hand there are neo-conservatives that are crusading against free speech in terms of liberalism itself. At their side are any number of corporations that have fell "victim" to so called "hate blogs" (a term that is SO exaggerated). And also those commercial interests that believe that they own the Internet and that the wired world ought to be there for their convenience and commercial benefit. They cannot accept or even fathom that large parts of the Net operates outside of regular society in terms of abidance to laws and capitalist principles.

The Internet has, in short, given humanity a voice. Like in Greek mythology when Prometheus stole the fire from Olympus. A fitting metaphor I think. After decades of living in the cold shadows of corporate greed and oppressive and corrupt governments, humanity is on the verge of a new enlightenment.

Entry 64 filed under: North America. This entry was posted 3 years, 9 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.