On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 2:17 PM, Bob in Jersey <[email protected]> wrote: > > The Federal Trade Commission Monday announced new requirements for > celebrities and bloggers to disclose their financial connections to > businesses whose products/services they plug, as well as requiring > more detailed statements than the simple "Results not typical" in > testimonial ads...first one not behind $ub$¢ription wall for now:
I saw this earlier today. No slippery slope here. Bloggers can calm down. The FTC is addressing two specific issues. They want to review the ads on various blogs and websites that advertise "free iPhones" or "95% discount on Cialis" to determine if they are fraudulent. They also want to ensure that a blogger is not being paid for positive reviews of something or a negative review of their competition (I swear more than half the "reviews" on the iTunes store are from paid sources). Nobody's free speech is restrained when we hold people accountable for what they write. And anonymous authors, by definition, are not covered under the first amendment, as they could be anyone from a non-US citizen to a trained chimp. So, as I've advocated for years, blogs, videos, podcasts, etc. should include the real names of the creators. To quote Aaron Sorkin, "When I write something, I sign my name to it." In summary, this is a good thing. Completely unenforceable, but good. -- Kevin M. (who does use his real name on his blog, but it is written in Cyrillic so his students won't find it) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
