In a decision with online media business implications, the US Federal Election Commission declared that DailyKos, a politically liberal site, operates as a news and commentary provider, and therefore exempt from campaign finance laws that restrict the monetary contributions to it, reports BetaNews.

The complaint from another blogger was that DailyKos openly solicited money in exchange for promoting the donor through advertising, rather than simply sell ads like a normal media site. This meant that with open Democratic bias of the site, it was soliciting contributions, with ads granted as a token of its appreciation.

However, the FEC decided today that Kos Media, L.L.C., which operates DailyKos, did not violate the Federal Election Campaign Act, and that the site falls squarely within the media exemption and is therefore not subject to federal regulation under the Act. “The Commission has repeatedly stated that an entity that would otherwise qualify for the media exemption does not lose its eligibility because it features news or commentary lacking objectivity or expressly advocates in its editorials the election or defeat of a federal candidate,” it said. Some more info here.