Contact Attorney Richard Keyt: 480-664-7478|rk@keytlaw.com

Where Did You Get That Keychain?

City-Journal:  Overlawyered’s Walter Olson wrote an excellent article on the FTC’s new ad/testimonial rules.  “New guidelines on freebies target bloggers but go easy on traditional outlets.  If there was any doubt that sweeping regulation—big, shoot-for-the-moon regulation—was back in favor in Washington, it was laid to rest on October 5, when the Federal Trade Commission published 81 pages of new guidelines asserting authority over product endorsements and testimonials, particularly those published in blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. From the early coverage, you might have thought the guidelines were mostly of concern to the calculating Madison Avenue types who send baby-product and cosmetics swag to mommy-bloggers as part of nefarious “buzz marketing” campaigns. But the new guidelines are much broader than that. They lay out potential theories of liability for many bloggers and online commentators with more traditional literary, political, or journalistic profiles.”

See the FTC’s new guidelines.

See also Walter Olson’s October 16, 2009, post on this topic.

The Future of the Internet

Mises Economics Blog:  “There’s concern throughout the Internet after the Federal Trade Commission announced today

[October 5, 2009] that it has the power to regulate blogs, specifically blogs that endorse commercial products. The unelected FTC – composed entirely of Bush appointees – now mandates that “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.” This is merely a first step towards regulating the content of blogs themselves, as anyone who offers a personal testimonial about any product will be liable, under the Federal Trade Commission Act, should the FTC disagree with your personal experiences.

If you’re wondering just how big a mess the FTC can make, consider a decision published just last week by D. Michael Chappell, the FTC’s chief administrative law judge. Judge Chappell caught FTC prosecutors in a blatant attempt to lie their way out of a bad situation arising from yet another misguided attempt to micromanage the World Wide Web. It’s a case that demonstrates the FTC’s unique combination of stupidity and narcissism.

FTC Reassures Bloggers – Big Brother Isn’t Watching

The Blog of LegalTimes:  “Bloggers of the world, relax – the Federal Trade Commission is not out to get you.  That was the message from Mary Engle, associate director for advertising practices at the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.   In a conference call for reporters today, Engle aimed to set the record straight after a flurry of news stories (not to mention blogs and tweets) about the FTC’s new advertising guidelines that were, as she put it, ‘all wrong.  We are not going to be patrolling the blogosphere,’ she said. ‘We are not planning on investigating individual bloggers.'”

Breadth of New FTC Blogger Regs

Overlawyered.com:  Walter Olson worries about the chilling effect the new FTC ad rule will have on people and the FTC’s selective enforcement of the regulation.  I agree.

An editorial in today’s

[October 12, 2009] New York Times, despite a bit of concessionary fluff about not wanting ‘to hamstring the ability of bloggers and twitterers to report and comment about the world,’ enthusiastically endorses the new rules.  It says not one word about the dangers of overbreadth, de minimis triviality, chilling effects, or selective enforcement.  Nor (unlike the L.A. Times’s far more nuanced editorial) does it inform readers that the FTC is proposing in some respects to regulate social media more stringently than traditional media outlets such as the Times itself.

Freeze: It’s the Twitter Police!

Wall St. Journal:  “What Eliot Ness was to mobsters and Inspector Clouseau was to fictional jewel thieves, Brendan Wilhide is to Twitter.  Yes, the popular social-networking tool now has an enforcer—public-relations specialist by day, Internet private eye by night.   With more than one-third of the NBA, hundreds of NFL players and scores of major leaguers on Twitter, Mr. Wilhide spends several hours a day determining which athletes’ accounts are phonies and which are legit.  When he confirms imposter “tweets”—the short text messages sent out to people who sign up for Twitter updates—he posts an alert on his Web site, SportsIn140.com.”

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