FTC: bloggers must disclose payments by advertisers

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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FTC: bloggers must disclose payments by advertisers

this should make things VERY interesting in the “blogosphere”.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33177160/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

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sorry, im way to tired right now. what does all of it mean, in a nutshell?

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if a blogger is paid for a review by an advertiser, he or she must disclose it or face an 11,000 dollar fine

now everyone in the dj blog scene will have to be as impartial as the djtt crew or at the very least, they’ll have to finally own up to the fact that they are being paid for their opinions =p

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wow… should indeed make things interesting..

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does msnbc care to give any examples of what the ftc used as precedence to start pursuing this? this is kind of stepping into some gray areas concerning regulation of the web and what’s made the blogosphere such a powerful communication medium.

i’m all about sacking unethical blogging and misleading consumers for personal gain, but these people are typically called out by more ethical bloggers and readers before it gets out of hand. the credibility of these bloggers are greatly diminished when the notion of it pops up on the social networking sites and the entire community are calling foul on them.

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^^^ Yeah but just like anything else, sometimes other bloggers (or people in general) calling them out isn’t enough. (your a part of the penned madness blog?!? ruthless :slight_smile:)

I don’t think this is going to end up affecting a whole lot of bloggers or people in general. The FTC doesn’t have the time to investigate every review every blog ever does to make sure there isn’t some red tape behind it.

The only people that need to worry about this already know who they are, basically.

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I think this law might not prevent blogs from posting biased opinions but rather (possibly) deter people from buying the product if the blog has a line which says ‘we got 1000 dollars plus a free CDJ-2000 for this review’

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the issue, though, is simply this: once content is regulated by a government agency in one small way, an overzealous politician, industry lobby, or political group can make the case for even more regulation down the road easier to push through. i realize how backwoods government-hating ultra-conservative redneck that sounds, but this is pretty analogous to how radio and television began to go down the road of very tightly controlled media.

i think lambox is on the right track in saying that these regulations are probably going after the bottom-feeding online snake oil salesmen (enlarge your peen0r, scan your computer, you’ve-just-won-a-free-xbox, etc.) more so than any consumer retail folks.

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DJTT doesnt get payed to review anything - so were safe :slight_smile:

You do make a very good point there !

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i see what they’re doing there..

but i think this is a lot of hype. how would it get uncovered anyway? who’s snitchin?

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since its an ftc ruling you could contact the fbi and they would investigate it