Comments on: FTC To Bloggers “That $11,000 Fine is Not True”

By: Everything I Needed To Know About Blogging I Learned In Kindergarten | Bird On A Wire

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:51:10 +0000

[...] FTC To Bloggers “That $11,000 Fine is Not True” (lockergnome.com) [...]

By: mhz

mhz — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:09:58 +0000

The startling thing about this in my opinion is that the FTC thinks they could enforce something like this. Realistically, it would be too expensive to enforce on any consistent basis.

It would just be a random thing, like getting a speeding ticket. Or like the article said, in response to a complaint from a competitor. Sure everyone was doing it, but someone tattled on you!

They would have to start from the marketing company end, demanding a list of who got paid and how much, then starting with that person’s web site, scouring content and related links for “opinion-related” content.

I mean, I hate false reviews as much as anyone, but good grief. I don’t buy anything based on one person’s review. It has to be overwhelmingly positive, from many people. But I would be mad if I found out about mass skullduggery in product reviews, leading me to purchase a lousy product.

Still, I wonder if the FTC has staff (or a super-genius software algorith?) that can hope to monitor such things fairly and effectively.

By: Alex Schleber

Alex Schleber — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:56:43 +0000

All this silliness will do is create an avenue for malcontents to baselessly attack their competitors. Just because it’s a “3 strikes” system and complaint-based doesn’t make it any less dangerous in this regard.

BTW, for most small business owners that use the Internet/blogs (is there any other kind left?) to sell their own products and services, the testimonial issue is a much bigger deal than the affiliate disclosure. And here again, the attack angle by way of FTC complaint is disconcerting.

And the way Big Business, advertisement, and Old Media are apparently exempted from these same onerous terms makes it all the more ludicrous.

Just because within the black boxes of larger media institutions the lines of influence and reciprocity aren’t as easily visible doesn’t mean that they’re not there.

By: Tinman

Tinman — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:39:21 +0000

This is about right, creating a consumer protection law without any bite to it, like the anti-spam law. The company’s that use this form of “false advertising” will continue to do so. If one blogger gets “warned”, then they’ll just hire another blogger to give a false “good review”.

By: Urban Underbrink

Urban Underbrink — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:44:11 +0000

Not sure I understand this completely, but this is Scary! Just what we need – more Control Freaks telling us what we can think or say. How do they propose to control the World? The worst cases of fraud are from little scumbag countries where they are untouchable! If they can’t enforce those criminals, what right do they have to even think they can tell us what we can say? The biggest criminals are in our own Government, and most have been appointed by the Chicago Gangster – Obama.