Yes to The Online Freedom of Speech Act and no to HR 4194

I am a supporter of The Online Coalition, a group of like minded Bloggers, and others, Left, and Right, who wish to protect Freedom of Speech Online.

Last Spring I signed on to a letter sent out to the Chairman of the FEC.

Previous Coverage, and my thoughts:

Blogging may be Imperiled by Federal Election Commission.

A look at proposed FEC Rule.

What if FEC went after Host Services, and not Bloggers?

Now there are 2 competing bills on The Hill.

HR 1606 is called The Online Freedom of Speech Act, and needs your support.

The alternative, HR 1494, the  "Internet Anti-Corruption and Free Speech Protection Act of 2005", does not deserve your support.

As Daily Kos has written:

True protection for bloggers, podcasters, wiki-ists and others, as we have argued, would best come from a robust expansion of the media exemption to the Internet, allowing for anyone who engages in "news, commentary and editorial" on the Internet to have the same freedom to do so without regulatory interference as do the New York Times, FoxNews, National Review and the Excellence in Broadcasting network.  So long as vibrant netroots activity is protected, restrictions on "soft money" sources can be negotiated -- but since no such bill has been introduced in Congress yet, a blanket exemption (and then waiting to see if any problems do arise, since none did in 2004) is preferable to the FEC regulation which now will soon follow.

To begin to understand what this is all about read here, and here.

Now comes news of a new letter from The Online Coalition, and an effort to explain why HR 1494 is a bad idea.

Here's the scoop:

HR 4194 -  is a substitute offred by those most interested in regulating the internet. it supporters are engaged in an aggressive campaign to pass this legislation in Congress, in an effort to muddy the waters and distract Congress from passing real protections for bloggers. They're so terrified of your freedom to speak your mind that they've actually compared giving freedom to bloggers to the scandal involving Scooter Libby in the White House. No, we're not making that up.

In order to pass the bill we want – we need to stop the sham alternative bill – HR 4194.

Their measure, H.R. 4194 purports to protect “bloggers” from campaign finance regulation. But, in fact, it is so riddled with exceptions and exclusions that it is worse that nothing.

To begin to learn about the problems with this bill read here, and then read the new Letter just sent out to every member of Congress, then consider writing your own congress man your thoughts as well.

The new letter, by Michael Krempasky, of RedState.org, and Markos Zuniga, of DailyKos.com, begins as follows:

As bloggers from the right and left, we don’t often agree on much. But when it comes to free speech online, we couldn’t agree more. We urge you to oppose H.R. 4194, the Shays-Meehan "Internet Anti-Corruption and Free Speech Protection Act of 2005". We oppose H.R. 4194 primarily because despite claims by its supporters - it does not in fact offer adequate protections for speech and political activity online.

The letter details the problems with the bill, and why HR 1606 is better.