Slashdot Mirror
EU Bans Sock-Puppet Blogs
PhilipMarlowe9000 writes in with news of a new EU directive that will take effect in the UK at the end of this year to ban "sock-puppet" reviews or websites, part of an EU-wide overhaul of consumer laws. From the article: "Businesses that write fake blog entries or create whole wesbites purporting to be created by customers will fall foul of a European directive banning them from 'falsely representing oneself as a consumer.' From December 31, when the change becomes law in the UK, they can be named and shamed by trading standards or taken to court. The Times has learnt that the new regulations also will apply to authors who praise their own books under a fake identity on websites such as Amazon."
you have a pointless life don't you.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
This --is-- a joke, right?
...as long as Stick Stickly is safe, the world will continue to be a pure and unsullied place.
You're a total fucking idiot. Really.
So, uttering a false cheque is protected free speech?
Bilking your grandmother out of her savings through a NIgerian scam is free speech?
Lying to someone so that they give you money is fraud, you fucking nitwit.
It doesn't matter if I pretend to be the deceased Prince Mobutu of Nigeria's wife trying to smuggle out his drug money or if I'm a corporation astroturfing. It's the act of trying to deceive people into giving you their money that is the crime.
The speech itself is a means to that end, but it's the totality of the circumstances that matter.
In other words: fuck you, you fucking fuck.