SF Wants to Regulate Blogging

LGF reports It figures that the birthplace of the free speech movement would be the first to try to restrict the free speech of bloggers: San Francisco May Regulate Blogging

Just when you thought the Federal Election Commission had it out for the blogosphere, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors took it up a notch and announced yesterday that it will soon vote on a city ordinance that would require local bloggers to register with the city Ethics Commission and report all blog-related costs that exceed $1,000 in the aggregate.

Blogs that mention candidates for local office that receive more than 500 hits will be forced to pay a registration fee and will be subject to website traffic audits, according to Chad Jacobs, a San Francisco City Attorney. The entire Board is set to vote on the measure on April 5th, 2005. I wonder if they’ll be forced to register their own blogs!

redFryInternational commented I see a whole new industry being setup;
- Offshore blogging
- Posting by Proxy

SuperdaveTWC commented How tolerant and diverse of them... Maybe we should rename the blogosphere the "pornosphere" and change the word "Green" in LGF to "Gay". That way we can scream "CENSORSHIP!" and have the ACLU on our side.

Initially I thought this was an April Fool joke, but it appeared on March 31 and is supposed to be voted on April 5