FTC to bloggers: disclose freebies or face $11,000 fine | Hacker News Reader

FTC to bloggers: disclose freebies or face $11,000 fine

readwriteweb.com

17 pointsRyanMcGreal15 comments

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FTC to bloggers: host your blog outside of the US.

Does that help you if you reside in the US and file taxes in the US and do business in the US?

Exactly. This is about what you write, not where it's hosted.

Anyway, Canadians are safe, for now:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/10/05/ftc-blogger-di...

Depends. FTC suspects you of taking payola. They subpoena your blog's host to get your name and address. Your host refuses to comply because they are not in the US. The case fails due to lack of evidence.

I worry about the unintended consequences of this new law. Say I am paid to write a piece of (free) software by my employer. I use my blog to say how wonderful this is, without ever mentioning that I was paid to think it's wonderful. (Perhaps I don't even know that the money influenced my decision.) Should I be fined for this? Is the community better off without my writing? (Which is completely free and not even ad-supported?)

Anyway, I am all in favor of consumer protection... but I think the bad guys will get around this law, and "good guys" will be caught in the net. Restricting speech is a very, very slippery slope. (I am not even sure how comfortable I am with libel being illegal -- and that is a law that has been around for hundreds of years.)

What happens when they subpoena you for the logs? You're right there in your mom's basement in Tulsa.

How do they know who "you" is?

Presumably the same way the payola people do.

Sounds costly.

Let's install video cameras in everyone's house so that the police can have video evidence of all murders and child abuse. Won't someone please think of the children?

I'm not sure what this has to do with child abuse? Anyhow, I'm not advocating, just pointing out that the "colocate in Venezuela" trope is silly.

I have worked with many companies running these sorts of campaigns (I do work with a startup that tracks online engagement marketing) and have found that companies that are upfront and honest in their efforts tend to get better results than those that pretend to be regular people or pay people to pretend they like a product. Disclosure and honesty are unfortunately foreign concepts to many advertisers, but they are slowly catching on.

I don't like this regulation or think it is necessary, but it may actually do some good for the consumer.

I understand the need for this regulation. But do you think it will really change anything? The marketers will find another way to do the same thing.

I always wonder: "How can they enforce such laws without putting police officer behind everybodys back 24/7 ?" and if they can't why do they come up with such laws?

That one doesn't require having a policeman behind everyone's back, at best it means that someone is going to be looking at the most blatant instances of "$product is awesome, best $category evah!!!1!!!" posts and calling around to see if the blogger received compensation or product. I'm not sure but I think an FTC investigation has power of subpoena to get at payment records, etc.

So basically, you need to make sure that if you blog about a product or service you received for free; that you disclose the fact that you received it. The fact that it's backed with a very stiff fine somewhat underscores the seriousness with which the FTC views deceptive marketing tactics.

I hope that the people tasked with enforcing this are allowed the discretion to apply their judgment to individual cases. Because I can see this being missaplied, and I can see considerable confusion. And certainly, no one should be on the hook for $11,000 for saying they like their local pizzeria because they once had a coupon for a free pizza. On the other hand someone who is an authority in their field knowingly promoting sub-standard products because they are getting paid should be held to account for their misrepresentations.

Wait just a minute - that is a very Republican mindset, sir. I don't think that is very appreciated here.

Oh wait - this isn't digg or reddit so maybe it is...

This'll be a problem for the sort of games review site that mysteriously gave Master of Orion III a score of 97%.

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