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500 people read your blog? Go to prison!
Well, slightly more complicated than that.
There was a section in the lobbyist reformation legislation being worked on in the US Congress that if more than 500 people read your (EDIT: political) blog, you are effectively classified as a lobbyist and must report to Congress quarterly. Don't report, potentially go to jail.
http://infowars.net/articles/january2007/180107Bloggers_Prison.htm
Nasty stuff. Apparently it's been defeated. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/19/0553211
"The attempt to require political bloggers to register as lobbyists previously reported by Slashdot has been stripped out of the lobbying reform bill. The vote was 55 to 43 to defeat the provision. All 48 Republicans, as well as 7 Democrats, voted against requiring bloggers to register; all 43 votes in favor of keeping the registration provision were by Democrats."
I don't follow the Dems being the ones in favor of keeping this provision, gonna have to read the other sources to see what's up. I can see the GOP not liking this as they've been shown to have paid blogger pundits out there and all of that would be revealed, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the Dems also have them out there. It just seems to me that the Republicans would be in favor of it as it would further restrict free speech and criticism of the gov't and big business.
There was a section in the lobbyist reformation legislation being worked on in the US Congress that if more than 500 people read your (EDIT: political) blog, you are effectively classified as a lobbyist and must report to Congress quarterly. Don't report, potentially go to jail.
http://infowars.net/articles/january2007/180107Bloggers_Prison.htm
Nasty stuff. Apparently it's been defeated. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/19/0553211
"The attempt to require political bloggers to register as lobbyists previously reported by Slashdot has been stripped out of the lobbying reform bill. The vote was 55 to 43 to defeat the provision. All 48 Republicans, as well as 7 Democrats, voted against requiring bloggers to register; all 43 votes in favor of keeping the registration provision were by Democrats."
I don't follow the Dems being the ones in favor of keeping this provision, gonna have to read the other sources to see what's up. I can see the GOP not liking this as they've been shown to have paid blogger pundits out there and all of that would be revealed, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the Dems also have them out there. It just seems to me that the Republicans would be in favor of it as it would further restrict free speech and criticism of the gov't and big business.
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As I recalled, there were exceptions in it for people distributing material for declared political groups, so long as the material or blog was endorsed by the group and intended primarily for its membership, or something like that.
Either way, I'm certainly not complaining that the amendment was voted down.