The EU laws to ban astroturfing, sock-puppeting and lots of other strangely named online terminology [1] (sock puppeting? What’s Mr. Flibble done that’s so bad?) is a very sensible, useful piece of legislation with one slight problem as far as I can see – how will they actually enforce it
The article itself says:
“But the crucial word here is “risk” – the government has already indicated that only serious infringements will be prosecuted, although it is probably best to assume that it will prod into action the Office of Fair Trading and Trading Standards, the chief enforcement agencies, should an illegal commercial blog gain a high media profile.”
So it seems likely the odd favourable review on Amazon by the publisher will probably slip under the radar then.
It’s great somebody’s trying to tackle this as itis becoming a bit of a problem and an utter pain in the arse at times, but with the internet being, well, huge, I’m not entirely sure its going to be easy to police, and that’s before we even get into proof (call me skeptical, but I doubt officers will be anywhere near as thorough as someone like Tim Ireland).
I somehow can’t see ad execs and assorted companies stopping astroturfing [2] and sock puppeting the moment the law comes into force, and I’ll remain skeptical until the first prosecution is successfully brought.
[1] Via Strange Attractor.
[2] On a complete, well not quite, tangent, I play 5-a-side on a fantastic rubber crumb astroturf. The only problem is the bloody rubber crumb gets everywhere. I found some in my chequebook the other day. The stuff’s like bloody Tribbles.
Gary Andrews 
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