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Will the next generation read news reports? It looks like it. Some 62% of US internet users aged 12 to 17 are going online for news and political information or find out about current events, said a study conducted by the Pew Research Center published yesterday. During special events such as general elections news consumption rose to 77%.

"An article published in, The Guardian, discusses a debate taking place in the British Parliament around a new "digital economy bill. One amendment in particular is stirring a lot of discussion about its impact on content online. The Guardian writes: The new proposal - which was passed in the House of Lords by 165 votes to 140 - gives a high court judge the right to issue an injunction against a Web site accused of hosting a "substantial" amount of copyright infringing material, potentially forcing the entire site offline. Critics say the major problem with this amendment is that ajudge could shut down a Web site because of copyright infringement, even if thesite's manager didn't put the content online."

An article published on Thursday in, The Guardian, discusses a debate taking place in the British Parliament around a new "digital economy bill." One amendment in particular is stirring a lot of discussion about its impact on content online. The Guardian writes: The new proposal - which was passed in the House of Lords by 165 votes to 140 - gives a high court judge the right to issue an injunction against a Web site accused of hosting a "substantial" amount of copyright infringing material, potentially forcing the entire site offline. Critics say the major problem with this amendment is that a judge could  shut down a Web site  because of copyright infringement, even if the site's manager didn't put the content online. What is left unanswered is how a company can be held accountable for every piece of content placed on its site.  Many critics of this bill and others in Europe say it is most likely to result in the stifling of creativity, innovation and free speech. In the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act offers some protection against liability to Internet service providers and Web sites that host copyrighted material uploaded by third parties.

Michael Roston think the New York Times is onto something with the new model they introduced yesterday, but believes that articles written to protect the public interest musn't charge if it to achieve it's goal. "Presumably, the New York Times still produces reported news that looks out to protect the public interest. If that news is being produced, it should be available to the public, regardless of whether or not they pay for it. It's difficult to educate members of the public about really important things they need to be aware of when you're hitting them up for a $3 day pass or something"

The NY Times breaks ranks and announces a new plan to charge frequent users of their online site. Will this new economic model work?

 Hulu investor  Providence Equity Partners is pumping $50 million into a new online video company set up by Chinese Internet search giant  Baidu. The news comes roughly 7 weeks after Baidu confirmed plans to established a new independent company to provide licensed, advertising-supported online video content to Chinese Internet users.

NBC's current online coverage of the Olympics is discussed in light of the online technology and the use of "cable verification" to establish new online models limiting free content.

"Online news has become more popular than reading newspapers in the US, according to a Pew Research survey. It is the third most popular form of news, behind local and national TV stations, the Pew Research Center said."

A very small number of news organizations, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and Newsday, already charge online readers, each with a system developed largely in-house, and The New York Times announced recently that it planned to do the same. But with advertising plummeting, many other publishers eager for a new source of revenue are considering making the switch, despite the risk of losing audience and advertising.

The difficulties currently facing the news industry include formulating a comprehensive new business plan and competing economic models for online journalism.

"News Corp. agreed to pay $70 million for a stake in the media company owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, one of its largest shareholders. The New York media conglomerate will take a 9.1% stake in Rotana Group, with an option to double its holdings in 18 months. Corp. will have two seats on Rotana's six-person board. The investment gives News Corp its first significant foothold in the Middle East, where it expects economies to grow quickly."

This article talks about the new economic model for online news sources (the pay for what you use model that the NYT will switch to in 2011), and how it will actually be implemented on a user's screen.

Discussion of whether Google will leave China with comments from Chinese bloggers and media analysts.

Discusses the challenges of charging readers for online news content, including competition between pay and free sites for readers.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday resurrected a possible settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by freelance writers who said that newspapers and magazines had committed copyright infringement by making their contributions available on electronic databases. The proposed settlement was prompted by a 2001 decision from the Supreme Court in favor of six freelance authors claiming copyright infringement in The New York Times Company v. Tasini. After the Tasini decision, many freelance works were removed from online databases. Most publishers now require freelance writers to sign contracts granting both print and online rights. After the decision, the authors, publishers and database companies who were parties to several class-action lawsuits negotiated a global settlement that would pay the plaintiffs up to $18 million.

Video of Luge Crash raises interesting discussions about copyright and Fair Use. Google would not comment on the particular video but offered this general statement. "We approach each video individually, and we do not prescreen content. Instead, we count on our community members to know the Guidelines and to flag videos they think violate them. We review all flagged videos quickly, and if we find that a video does break the rules, we remove it, usually in under an hour." And, interestingly enough, regular TV broadcasters, with no licensing agreement with the IOC, are employing the fair use argument and airing the clip. Yet YouTube, and other online outlets are so terrified of the constant bullying from content creators that they're not going to take any chance and are taking the video down. In the end, nobody wins, people don't have access to the information, online video sites lose viewers and trust from their users and the IOC comes out as trying to hush up an unpleasant situation and (mis)using copyright law to do so.

Net-Neutrality sets precedent for online video traffic.

The XBox moves into cable TV turf. What does it mean for the industry?

Television content will only be accessible online to those who currently pay for cable television.

"Earlier this week, federal prosecutors in New Jersey unveiled a 43-count indictment charging four men with using sophisticated computer programs to bypass security measures to buy up blocks of tickets through online vendors like Ticketmaster. They sold the tickets to brokers, who in turn marked them up for ravenous fans who found the available supply of tickets scarce. According to the indictment, the defendants reaped more than $20 million in profits from 2002 to 2009 through purchases of more than one million tickets by their company, Wiseguy Tickets."

"Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)'s release Wednesday of its Outlook Social Connector beta is another indication of how social networking has infiltrated not only the online world, but also enterprise software. The Outlook Social Connector, a new feature in Office 2010, blends social networking updates into the business functionality of the software. With Outlook Social Connector, a user can view an e-mail message and social networking activities from the same sender in the same window pane. For now, though, it doesn't allow posting updates back onto LinkedIn or other social-networking sites directly from the inbox."