I doubt that the FTC will go trolling for violations (what a cost that would be!), but instead will probably act when there are complaints or the blogger and/or advertiser come under scrutiny for some other reason.

Whether or not a blogger is “untouchable” because she is not in this country, the FTC can go after a American advertiser who sponsors a blogger who does not comply with the law. Ostensibly, the FTC could at least locate the blogger, and could obtain an injunction which would prohibit the advertiser from using the services of that blogger.

The FTC makes it clear that advertiser will likely be responsible for misreprestations that the compensated blogger makes. Assuming a “rogue blogger” endorser who misrepresents a product, in spite of the advertiser’s attempts to rein in the misrepresentations, the FTC could still find culpability if the advertiser has not satisfied the FTC of its innocence.

Why would the FTC be so persnickety? Well, because the advertiser picks the endorser.

So, is a foreign blogger subject to the courts of this country? Maybe not. Some blogs, apparently, will be untouchable, but I imagine that a foreign blog can be effectively shut down (for money-making purposes anyway) by the FTC when it is enforcing American law on American companies.

I don’t see how the FTC will actaully apply this law to blogs though. Are there seperate rules for international blogs? If you’re an American living in another country full time do you still have to abide by this alw…there seems to be a lot of questions. But back to implimentation… will they wait for complaints by individuals about Bloggers or will they be coasting through blogs looking for violators.

Honesty in everything a person does is important anyways and I think the same holds true for blogging.

Great Posts as always!

Also, I could see where a Kindle would be useful for students of Islam as well. I am not familiar enough with the technology, so I don’t know whether it could handle Arabic text… but the Quran on Kindle? Nice, right? Hadith on Kindle… Islam lessons on Kindle. People (especially Muslims) don’t like to waste time, and a Kindle could come in handy 5 days a week while Mommy is waiting in the carpool lane at the kids’ school. (Today for some reason, it was 25 minutes before the line started moving at Laila’s school!)

Certainly the big boys get to make their own rules too much of the time. It is fantastic that the authors all stood up and yelled “foul” to the POD service. That really is a stinker.

As I said, the Kindle agreement may appeal to some writers, most writers, even, once they understand the deal. But, they should be given the choice first. And there is no choice unless there is understanding.

I witnessed Amazon’s removing the Orwell books from their machines and the backlash it received from its customers… the bigwigs at Amazon vowed not to do that again… which doesn’t bode well for authors who claim Amazon infringement. Out and out infringement, yeah, they’ll do what they have to do– but in cases where the issues are more murky, I can see them ignoring the author’s concerns in favor of the customer. And they will bully (you use the right word) the author as long as they think they can.

I am sure– sure, I tell you– that this particular event (taking the Orwell stories from customers’ Kindles) was planned. How easy was it then, to establish a “customers come first” policy as a result of the “backlash”? George Orwell is one of the most famous authors of the 20th century… every high school student in America has been required to read at least one of his books.

So. That said– will I continue to buy from Amazon? Sure. Will I think twice? Yes. But for reasons apart from this issue, there are other companies I would avoid. Amazon, in my opinion, is the lesser of the evil of the two major booksellers.

Thanks for taking the time to read/analyze the contract. As with other Amazon contracts… the Search Inside one for example… the language is murkie (my opinion) and therefore I don’t place a lot of trust in doing business directly with Amazon.
Just last year there was an uproar when Amazon tried to get small publishers and self publishing authors using print on demand (POD) printing to use its newely acquired POD printing service, some publishers received emails from Amazon stating that Amazon intended to disable the Buy buttons on listed books on the Amazon web site for those who did not switch to Amazon’s printing service. Amazon backed off and nothing happened, but it is business practices like this (I call it bullying) that I find extremely troublesome.

I have not found many Muslims jumping to buy the inexpensive ebooks in pdf format that they can use free software to read the ebooks from their desktop and laptop computers. In the Muslim Markets I don’t think many are prepared to spend the $300 on a Kindle ereading machine .. at least not right now.