FTC States Bloggers Must Disclose Paid Reviews

An anonymous reader writes to tell us that in the first revision of how endorsements and testimonials work since 1980, bloggers will now be required by the FTC to clearly disclose freebies or payments they received for product reviews. "the commission stopped short Monday of specifying how bloggers must disclose any conflicts of interest. The FTC said its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines, which had been expected. Penalties include up to $11,000 in fines per violation. The rules take effect Dec. 1."

Comments

Get paid...

[Protonk]

So we'll be seeing fewer reviews on slashdot, then?

A fixed fine is not a good idea.

[Locke2005]

Penalties include up to $11,000 in fines per violation. Note to self: require a payment of at least $12,000 to endorse a product in my blog.

just wait

[rossdee]

if they ever catch this 'Anonymous Coward' guy, they will throw the book at him.

Re:just wait

[Anonymous Coward]

Throw the book at me? That's fine by me as long as it is one of Bill O'Reilly's or Glenn Beck's fineely insightful political novels. Ah yes, nothing better than enjoying a good, patriotic stint of literature while sipping on a nice, smooth Southern Comfort single malt whiskey. In fact, I can't think of anything that goes with said literature better than Southern Comfort, except of course, reading the literature on the new Windows 7 Dell computers, the American compute, the man's computer!.

(All comments about the products mentioned in this comment were selected voluntarily and resulted in no transfer of funds between the commenter and the makers of this products. All statements in this comment are subject to the loosest interpretation of 'truth' as possible)

How about in review mags?

[rAiNsT0rm]

I worked as a videogame reviewer for a number of years and the amount of bought and paid for "reviews" in that game is just silly. I once panned MGS3 (for being all hype and cutscene and little substance) and got a nasty letter from them stating they would not continue to reimburse me or advertise for our site... we were a totally independent site and took no money or ads in the first place.

Re:Astroturfing.

[Red Flayer]

I know, don't feed the trolls...

But seriously... if slashdot "went straight down the toilet" -- and you're still here -- that implies you're a turd.

Just thought you should know.

Re:Astroturfing.

[Runaway1956]

"Maybe the astroturfing garbage will finally stop... or at least be more obvious."

I want to see how that works out on slashdot. It should be amusing.

Anonymous Coward posts:

Linux sucks, only gays want it, only idiots and democrats use it. Apple is for elitest homos and republicans. Unix only works for fossilized fags who dream in binary. MS rocks, Gates is God, and Ballmer is the messiah.

Disclaimer: AC is paid $25 per thousand words by Microsoft corporation to bash Linux and Apple while praising MS.

Re:US only

[Yvan256]

although cultural references can sometimes give it away.

What makes you say that, eh?

Re:What's a blogger?

[bonch]

Don't worry. I'm sure the government will be really specific with their definition so that they can't just apply it to anything. I'm sure this won't get abused in any way. I'm sure this isn't just the first step in increasing government regulation of the internet. I'm sure there's absolutely no reason to complain that the freedoms of the internet, good and bad, are going away in favor of increased government control.

With Leo on a recent epsiode of...

[Tetsujin]

Except that he hasn't fapped over every Apple thing ever. He pretty convincingly addressed all this with Leo Laporte on a recent episode of TWIT.

For some reason I misread that as "a recent episode of TMNT"...

Needless to say I was rather confused...

Re:Astroturfing.

[Tetsujin]

But seriously... if slashdot "went straight down the toilet" -- and you're still here -- that implies you're a turd.

Now now, he could also be a dead goldfish, or a gob of hair picked out of the shower drain...

Re:Astroturfing.

[blackraven14250]

No, it just means they'll have to put it on the bottom of the screen for 2.5 seconds in type so small you can't read it.

Re:Free Speach or a Product Review?

[Anonymous Coward]

The product review might not be easy to identify, but the receiving free shite portion is. If you bought a slap-chop and it works great, no problem. However if they gave you a slap-chop on top of a pile of cash then you need to say something like, "I love my new slap-chop that they gave me, it cuts the diamonds I bought with the giants stacks of money they also gave me wonderfully."

Re:US only

[Abreu]

What I'm sayin' esse, is that these gringos locos from Apple have a new bitchi'n iPod, esse

Much Respect to the vatos in Apple, esse

Re:US only

[MyLongNickName]

You are from Los Angeles?

Re:US only

[RealGrouchy]

Actually, the extraneous variant of "eh" is permitted for the purpose of exaggerating Canadian mannerisms to Americans.

- RG>