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The impact of the Supreme Court's recent ruling on political advertising and corporations could be an increase in revenues for local TV news stations.

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.

"Do American students have First Amendment rights beyond the schoolyard gates? The answer is yes and no, according to two conflicting federal appellate decisions Thursday testing student speech in the online world. "Ultimately, the Supreme Court is going to have to decide if there ever is a time students have full-fledged First Amendment rights," said Frank LoMonte, executive director of Virginia-Based Student Press Law Center. He's one of the attorneys in the cases the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided."

"Lawmakers also said there is a "causal connection" between access to such games and psychological or other harm to children. In their petition to the high court, state lawyers cited studies showing children who repeatedly watch on-screen games can become more aggressive, antisocial, and less able to distinguish the consequences of violence in real life."

"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. "

US Supreme Court decides that corporate ownership/finance of online political content should be no different than if it was written by a person -- leading to changes in rules for corporate/union finance of political campaigns.

More specific legal language on the Net-Neutrality court decision.

"A patent application by Google (GOOG), filed in August 2008 and only made public last week, shows that the company is working on an automated way to split printed magazines and newspapers into individual articles that it could then deliver separately. Although this could allow Google to convert stacks of periodicals into electronic archives, it potentially sends the company headlong into conflict with a famous Supreme Court ruling on media law."