DTI requires bloggers to have a permit for online contests?

A few months ago, I decided to have an online contest for my other blog Beating the Search Engine. The plan is to give a free donut to the 100th liker of the blog's Facebook page.

online contest

This is entirely voluntary. If people think that I'm just tricking them and I won't really give away a free donut then they're free to not join my contest. I am not coercing anyone into joining this contest. The profit incentive also prevents me from putting poison on the donut. Why would I want to lose my reader's patronage, right?

Bureaucrats over at DTI seem to think differently. They think that if they are able to regulate my contest it will ensure that my contest is fair and safe. I've already discussed on my previous post about why we should keep the government away from the internet, the different reasons why government intervention in people's voluntary online transactions are coercive, immoral, and counter-productive. It doesn't matter if it's just a smalltime contest or a large scale one, the bottom line is that these are voluntary exchanges.

I'm scared that this might only be the beginning of a much grander plan to regulate and restrict bloggers in the near future especially those who are voluntarily trading and earning from online transactions. And even if there is no grand plan yet, this issue might give bureaucrats the idea to do so.

I'm glad, though, with the reactions of people on Twitter about this issue. DTI was trending locally and a lot of Filipino bloggers were very wary of the government intervening with their business.

From what I hear, the permit requires you to pay a small fee and sign a piece of paper that says you are giving up your individual liberties. Sounds reasonable, yeah?

2 comments:

  1. It also requires you to have DTI representative present when you select the winner. Did you read all the rules? :(

    Sounds like an opportunity for extortion, no?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I haven't seen it. Is there a copy online? O:

    ReplyDelete

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