Federal campaign finance regulations assume that political speech advocating the election or defeat of candidates for public office costs money. The rules set limits on who can contribute, require public reports on who has contributed what, and even require disclosures for independent expenditures that advocate for or against a candidate.

These rules were designed for radio and TV. They have little relevance to the Internet, where many services exist that allow users to create a virtual home for themselves on the Internet free-of-charge. Users are given a certain amount of space (this varies for each service) and often an e-mail address and access to a variety of Web site building tools. Users need not even own a computer or pay for Internet access, for they can access these services from free terminals at most public libraries.

Some examples of these free hosting services include:

• Geocities (http://www.geocities.com)
• Xoom (http://www.xoom.com)
• Tripod (http://www.tripod.com)
• Bravenet (http://www.bravenet.com)