Give me Freeeeeeeedom!

FOUND!
Ryan's Smashing Life in the Boston Globe
12/1/09 - the Cover of the Living section



New regulations enacted today by the Federal Trade Commission require bloggers to declare gifts and payments received in exchange for their services. There is very little apparent applicability (as near as I can see) for RSL. We receive advanced media materials, albums, digital downloads and guest passes. Each of these is used to help increase awareness of the artist's work. The media materials are not compensatory in any way. The exposure for the artists (some of whom would have no other alternative or opportunity to reach large audiences) can be priceless, however. We are doing good work.

The Globe's Joan Anderman wanted my feelings on the regulations - those are Matthew Lee's photos. So while just a small portion of what I said, actually made the piece which appeared in today's Boston Globe, it was good to be involved and nice to be thought of. It was also pretty cool to have our writers on the cover of today's Living section to be seen by many thousands of people.

The apparent bend of the new regulation actually seems pretty clear; it's an attempt to prevent biased or inaccurate representation of goods or services online. The regulators want a reasonable level of transparency and it's a daunting task to be sure. What is unclear, however, is how the FTC intends to monitor and enforce those very rules they just rolled out. A new day or reason to be frightened?


Comments

Kerry said…
Congrats, dude, that's pretty cool.

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