FEC says it may be illegal to link to a candidate's website in few months

[Eric J in MN]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/3/11038/08559

[iconoclastNYC]

1. A lawsuit should be filed TODAY

This is bullshit.

[Atman]

2. FEC can kiss my ass

There are millions of web sites and billions of links. What the fuck are they going to do? This is a classic "civil disobedience" waiting to happen. Just say fuck 'em. The FEC has no jurisdiction over the internet and nobody can control who links to their web site.

[GodlessBiker]

7. "Just say fuck 'em." Yep. They can't monitor millions of websites.

Bloody idiots.

[Teaser]

10. But they can monitor the highest traffic sites!

Sites like DailyKos, Atrios, and Talking Points Memo represent are biggest megaphones. And they're the ones in real danger. Take that away, and what have we got?

[GodlessBiker]

14. What about if I put a link in a post on this site?

[Teaser]

3. And it's not the Repubs on the FEC killing us.

It's the Dem members. The Repubs actually wanted to kill this provision.

Why do our leaders so completely fail to understand the potential of the internet?

[Eric J in MN]

5. Who should we contact against this?

Can anyone reach Howard Dean?

[Teaser]

6. Try the DNC now.

Howard's going to be a lot less accessible to us, just because of time constraints. But it's worth a shot.

Your Congress people are a better chance. This is something that both parties should hate.

[Warpy]

9. Right, this is a full assault on GOPUSA

a website that pretty much had no other function except as an advertisement for the Bush campaign. There was precious little content that was generated outside official WH press releases; all links led to Bush donor site, one way or another; their mailing list was blessed with Bush campaign literature in emails. They were NOT cited as a campaign expense of the GOP (although they clearly were).

Personally, I find no problem with having a website say "You can read the original being commented upon at so and so's website" without providing a link. After all, we're smart enough to find this stuff on our own. THEY are not...

However, you're correct. This will eventually be struck down, perhaps rewritten so that blatant campaign sites like GOPUSA need to advertise that fact up front and that such sites need to be considered as part of an official campaign effort along with street signs and newspaper ads.

[Eric J in MN]

12. The Bush campaign didn't pay GOPUSA.

GOPUSA exists to help Republicans.

Lots of liberal blogs are to help Democrats.

There are much better websites than GOPUSA by the right and left, and they should all have Freedom of Speech.

[iconoclastNYC]

4. An opportunity for the entire Blogospher to flex its muslces

This could be ISSUE NUMBER ONE for us. I'm excited to see what MyDD, Atrios, and DailyKos come up with to fight back.

[CornField]

8. It seems to me that it is time for bloggers to form a national association

A trade union, if you will. The (press) association could regularly publish a newsletter to/for members which would satisfy the FEC publication requirements (I think).

[sybylla]

11. And just how are they going to enforce this?

I can't imagine they have the staff to investigate it. The only way it can work is if they set up the parties and the campaigns and the people to work against each other and rat each other out.

Or do they think they can force companies like Yahoo, Meetup, big and small ISP's and others to patrol all their private mailing lists and forums?

I just don't see this working, but I suppose it could mean a big haul in fines (think revenue) for the FEC and loads more big government. I bet the pukes will go for that.

[Eric J in MN]

13. They couldn't investigate every website, but they could

investigate the big liberal websites if they asked people to donate to a campgain.

My position is that since it's legal for volunteers to ask people to donate to a campaign by phone, it should remain legal for volunteers to ask people to donate to a campaing on their blogs.

[Wilber_Stool]

15. This is from another thread.

http://news.com.com/5208-1028-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=5154&messageID=31155&start=-1

Should have gotten the poster's name. It presents a different analysis.

[Eric J in MN]

17. That isn't what the FEC official said.

He didn't talk about websites which consist MOSTLY of press releases.

He said reproducing A press release could violate the law.

[KamaAina]

16. Cool! Let's link to every repuke campaign site in existence

and get every repuke in existence in Dutch with the FEC :evilgrin:

[BootinUp]

19. hehe

Thats what I'm sayin, they could never enforce this. :)

[Rosco T.]

18. define 'link'...

www. johnkerry .com

may not be a link, but people are smart enough to find the way there..

also, (steal from the original story)..

xxx.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/3/11038/08559

not a link, but anyone with at cut/paste can get there