Few issues before Congress have united online activists like the current debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S. House and its Senate companion, the PROTECT IP Act. Both bills attempt to address the theft of intellectual property. But critics say the legislation would do more harm than good. “The legislation addresses a legitimate problem,” noted Heritage’s James Gattuso in an analysis of SOPA, “but it may have unintended negative consequences for the operation of the Internet and free speech.” We discussed those consequences on this week’s Scribecast …
The House Ways and Means Committee welcomes former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a 2008 Republican presidential candidate, to testify on alternative tax systems. The hearing will examine the value-added tax and FairTax. It will also explore consumption tax and the issues surrounding it. Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) will speak at today’s Bloggers Briefing at Heritage. The freshman lawmaker serves on the Budget, Transportation & Infrastructure, and Oversight & Government Reform committees. He will be joined by Iain Murray, CEI’s vice president for strategy, and author of “Stealing You Blind.” Finally, Sam …
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) will be stopping by Heritage today for The Bloggers Briefing. He will be discussing his new book, “The Great American Awakening: Two Years That Changed America, Washington, and Me.” As noted in Heritage President Ed Feulner’s review, the book chronicles the rise of a movement that provided a crucial wake-up call in the aftermath of President Obama’s victory. He will be joined by American Legislative Exchange Council Senior Director for Public Affairs Raegan Weber and Tax & Fiscal Policy Director Jonathan Williams. Listen to the podcast on BlogTalkRadio or Ustream.tv. …
Should the federal government regulate what blogger’s blog? Yes, said the Federal Trade Commission yesterday — at least when it comes to product endorsements. At issue were the FTC’s guidelines concerning the use of endorsements in advertising. These guidelines, among other things, require paid endorsers of products to disclose their relationships with advertisers. The goal is a good one, to prevent deception and fraud. In practice, the lines are hard to draw — what exactly is an endorsement? What constitutes payment? It gets even harder in today’s world of user-generated …
Heritage’s Conservative Bloggers’ Briefing was honored to have North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry (R) speak to some thirty or so young conservative bloggers, journalists and activists. Rep. McHenry represents North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District and is Ranking Member on the Census Subcommittee. During his discussion with those in attendance, the Congressman focused on some recent behind-the-scenes political maneuvering regarding the upcoming U.S. Census count. Rep. McHenry mentioned past attempts by liberals in Congress to abandon the Census Bureau’s time honored standard of a “hard count” for a statistical sampling. The overwhelming …
Bloggers and web site operators may support, oppose, link to, and work cooperatively with federal political candidates. This freedom was reaffirmed when the newly re-constituted Federal Election Commission released its first two enforcement cases August 12. The Commission’s refusal to regulate blogging and internet sites is not new, but it is notable is that the pro-blogger decision was made within a week or two of the new Commission taking office. Of the scores of items on its docket, the new Commission chose to address this one first: quite likely because …
