Draft Internet FEC rules

[papau]

http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/articles/20050324.cfm

The Draft Internet Rules
Posted: 3/24/05
Related topics: Other Related Legal Developments
Fresh off the presses and late to the agenda, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Internet Communications (NPRM) manages to put forward a relatively restrained set of proposals while also suggesting that some dangers still lie ahead. This was always the minimum cost of the Commission's decision to proceed with a regulatory initiative centered on the Internet. It was, in the first instance, a decision to regulate; and so any allowance or exemption was necessarily an act of grace, as easily withdrawn or conditioned as it was granted.
Moreover, each such allowance requires the agency to justify the activities it chose to leave alone, which means the development of legal standards and a running argument with critics about their suitability. Examples of this, some cited below, appear in the proposed rules. Where all this leads will be clearer from the comments, such as those of the reform community, soon to be provided to the Commission, and--of course--the Commission's response to those comments.
As put before the Commission by the Office of General Counsel, the proposed rules, along with the accompanying commentary, seem fashioned to answer the worst fears of critics. Their purpose, the commentary states, is "to ensure that political committees properly finance and disclose their Internet communications, without impeding individual citizens from using the Internet to speak freely regarding candidates and elections." (NPRM at 1-2). The commentary, stressing the Internet as "a unique form of communication," stresses an approach of attempting "to preserve the general exclusion of Internet communications from the definition of "public communication." (NPRM at 13).

Internet Communications as Public Communications

The proposed rules deal with a principal concern, the "coordination" rules, by folding Internet communications in qualified terms into the definition of "public communication." The qualification is that only those Internet communications properly treated as "general public political advertising" could constitute "public communications." And to be "general public political advertising," the Internet communication would have to be "an announcement placed for a fee on another person or entity's website." Prop. Sec. 100.26(a) (NPRM at 41). The Commission provides as examples "streaming video that appears in banner advertisements or "pop-up" advertisements. (NPRM at 13). <snip>


http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5632346.html
http://clayton.redstate.org/story/2005/3/24/11723/7852
http://www.fec.gov/agenda/2005/mtgdoc05-16.pdf

[papau]

1. It isn't sure whether bloggers are also journalists, though.

The proposed rule would apply to certain public communications, referring to federal candidates or parties, paid by "non-connected" political committees under the "allocation rules" that became effective this year. The effect of the proposal would be to require that these committees pay with specified percentages of "hard money" for these Internet public communications.
<snip>


the Commission proposes to exempt Internet communications like most political blogs and most independent political websites from federal spending and disclosure laws, so long as they're not paid by the campaign or party they support.

"No contribution results where an individual, acting independently or as a volunteer, without receiving compensation, performs Internet activities using computer equipment and services that he or she personally owns for the purpose of influencing any Federal election, whether or not the individual's activities are known to or coordinated with any candidate, authorized committee or party committee." LINK

"No contribution results where an individual, acting independently or as a volunteer, without receiving compensation, performs Internet activities using computer equipment and services available at any public facility for the purpose of influencing any Federal election, whether or not the individual's activities are known to or coordinated with any candidate, authorized committee or party committee. The term 'public facility' within the meaning of this section shall include, but is not limited to, public libraries, public schools, community centers, and Internet cafes."

"No contribution results where an individual, acting independently or as a volunteer, without receiving compensation, performs Internet activities using computer equipment and services in his or her residential premises for the purpose of influencing any Federal election, whether or not the individual's activities are known to or coordinated with any candidate, authorized committee or party committee."

It isn't sure whether bloggers are also journalists, though.