When the  Federal Trade Commission announced new guidelines governing the giving of free books and gifts and other seeming remuneration to bloggers for fear of an $11,000 fine (see the earlier MobyLives report), it “set the blogging world aflame,” as Sue Corbett notes in a Publishers Weekly report. But now, Corbett says, the FTC is making it clear it “never intended to patrol the blogosphere,” according to its spokeswoman Mary Engle, and bloggers need not worry about rules that “don’t have the force of law.”

That’s PW’s take.

Then there’s George Murray‘s take on it at Bookninja:

The FTC says book bloggers seriously need to chill. “We’re not after you.” Oh really? Then how do you explain that car that’s been parked outside my house since I came home last night? You know, the black one with the carseats in the back? And my computer crashed twice yesterday. Coincidence? Oh, I think you DO know what I’m talking about, FTC, if that is your real name…. But regardless of who you say you’re after, the mechanism exists and can be applied broadly at will. I guess I’m overreacting. I mean, when in all of US history has legislation intended for one purpose been perverted at the suggestion of political or corporate interests? Pfft. I should totally take a pill. Or talk to this lady and maybe get a hug or something.