One page of the 47-page proposed regulation raises the question, and tentatively concludes that bloggers should not be required to disclose payments. (In last year's race, the Howard Dean campaign paid the publishers of the Daily Kos and MyDD blogs $3,000 a month.) For instance, he said, bloggers that get paid by political campaigns should be required to disclose their involvement in a prominent notice on their Web site. Hasen suggested that the proposed rules may not go far enough. Rick Hasen, a Loyola Law School professor who argued in court in favor of the BCRA, said that the "FEC's first stab at writing new rules raises as many questions as it seeks to answer, and we must remain wary of both intended and especially unintended consequences." The FEC's proposed regulations talk about "announcements placed for a fee on another entity's Web site." Smith asked: What if those are pop-up political ads generated by a software program such as Claria's "adware," instead of by a Web browser? Should the FEC target Claria, the advertiser or the Web site that happens to be in the background?.If such a site "did not qualify for the press exemption, the mere fact that they're unpaid does not get them out from under the regulation." If they endorse candidates, they must be approved by the FEC as legitimate news organizations or run afoul of the law, Smith warned. Some blogs, such as Daily Kos, are published by a corporation.He pointed to the academic-leaning Volokh Conspiracy blog, which has multiple contributors. But what if a group of people jointly publish a blog? "If one of the bloggers received payment for an activity, would it turn the group into a political committee" subject to campaign finance regulation, Smith asked.
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