H/T to Bill Hobbs on this one.
It seems that Congress may actually be trying to extend protections to bloggers in recent days. This via News.com:
WASHINGTON–A congressional panel on Wednesday voted, against the Bush administration’s wishes, to shield journalists including advertising-supported bloggers from having to reveal their confidential sources in many situations.
By a voice vote only after politicians spent nearly two hours airing various misgivings, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee approved an amended version of the Free Flow of Information Act. Chiefly sponsored by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.), it proposes protection for a wider set of people than previous years’ versions.
“Today, we are reclaiming one of the most fundamental principles enshrined by the founding fathers in the First Amendment of the Constitution,” Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said before the vote.
In response to concerns raised by the Bush administration and other politicians, the revised bill attempts to exclude the “casual blogger” from reaping those benefits by stipulating the protections apply only to those who derive “financial gain or livelihood” from the journalistic activity, Boucher said Wednesday. That broad rule could, however, include part-time writers who receive even a trickle of revenue from Google Ads or Blogads.com.
The bill defines the practice of journalism as “gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public.” read more…
Now, for those of us not currently raking in revenue from ads on our blog, we are not considered to be within the scope of this amendment.
See how your representative voted on this here.
Does this mean I am going to have to go commercial? Geez!
Others posting on this topic: Sharon Cobb / Paisley Amoeba / Podcasting News / Sam Bayard / Black Kitty /
August 6, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Ridiculous. So, if you don’t want to profit, you’re not protected? I’d think it would be the other way around. Hey, if it ever becomes a problem, there’s always a user account available at my site for you.
And, of course, my Representative votes the wrong way on this…Time for him to go.
August 6, 2007 at 4:10 pm
[...] H/T to Bill Hobbs on this one. It seems that Congress may actually be trying to extend protections to bloggers in recent days. This via News.com:. WASHINGTON–A congressional panel on Wednesday voted, against the Bush administration’s … …more [...]