Campaign Finance Rules vs. Freedom of Blog

If you've ever blogged about politics in the US, this might be of some interest to you. The Federal Election Commission is considering rules (Proposed Rules PDF) that would apply federal campaign finance regulations to online speech. The FEC says it wants to regulate only paid advertising on the Internet but the proposed rules seem to go well beyond that. For example:

Proposed Rules for Bloggers
• Mandatory disclaimers on political blogs
• Team blogs must register as a "political committee"
• Bloggers to file campaign expenditure reports

The Center for Democracy and Technology and the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University have launched a campaign to educate the FEC, and have posted a helpful website where you can learn more and take action.