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FEC Extending Election Regulation to the Internet
m_d_j_00 writes "Cnet has a story about Federal Election Commission plans to extend election laws to the Internet." From the article: "In 2002, the FEC exempted the Internet by a 4-2 vote, but U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last fall overturned that decision. 'The commission's exclusion of Internet communications from the coordinated communications regulation severely undermines' the campaign finance law's purposes, Kollar-Kotelly wrote." This may include regulation of bloggers and mailing lists linking to or forwarding campaign website URLs.
Hold on a second. Let me channel a Republican for a moment:
Iran?
Why, that's a county of heathens!
In America, this is all in the cause of Good Christian Democracy!
It's OK here, because God is on Bush's side!
Yech. I always feel icky after doing that.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Please. How is it different then Iran? This is a stupid law that limits who can spend how much money where. The ill thought out law also, according to one judge, also affects blogs. I give the chances of it being enforced close to nothing, and I give the chance of it being over turned very high. When someone is arrested for blogging that Bush is a jack ass, then you can complain. The American legal system has checks and balances so that this stuff can be removed.
It is different from Iran in that you can not have your canadacy revoked because the ruling theocracy decides you are not in accordance from Islamic law and have half of one parties canidates thrown out. One nation makes bloggers disappear and get torched, the other had a judge rule that one law could be used to regulate in a way the makers of the law probably did not anticipate. Does that answer your question as to how it is different?
Err, Scalia is in favor of ALL those freedom of speech restrictions.
>virtual child pornography
Yeah, great. Got a dating sim on your computer or some Evagelion porn? Guess what? That would be a felony as those images would be considered "virtual child pronography." Does that virtual girl look virtually 18?
> tobacco advertising
Inconsequential? One of the most addictive substances known is being sold over the counter and in every gas station with ads that used to (until regulation and other people got together) deny the dangers of smoking and that it was addictive. Hell, they used to hire doctors to say good things about tobacco in the 50s.
>sexually explicit cable programming
More on Scalia's hangup with people being able to view porn or anything with a nipple or not Jesus-centric. This guy would love for the FCC to step in and sanitize all media and I seriously doubt he'll say "Oh and we'll give the internet an exception."
Yes, this is a bad ruling, but Scalia as a defender of speech is fairly ridiculous. Watch him rule yes on using tax monies to buy ten commandments and other Xtian monuments in the next couple of days for more laughs.