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"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.

"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."

Discusses framing of Net Neutrality as contested First Amendment terrain, with comments by Kyle McSlarrow, President of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.

California-based web site that focuses on First Amendment issues. 

"A group of 25 Liberal Democrat candidates has penned an open letter urging the party to rethink its bid to cut off sites accused of copyright infringement. The Lib Dems' Lord Clement Jones successfully tabled an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill which would give courts the power to force ISPs to block sites accused of copyright infringement." The policy has been attacked as "dangerous" by civil liberties campaigners, who \nfear it swings the balance of power in favour of copyright holders and could harm free speech."

"Are newspapers dead, dead, dead? If you can believe everything you read in them, apparently so. Hal Fuson, a veteran of 44-years in the news business, didn't think those obituary writers had their stories straight. In fact, they were reporting myths about the dire state of the industry as though they were facts. When Fuson, who is a member of First Amendment Coalition's board, recently retired from Copley Press, decided to set the record straight. 'I had a few things to get off my chest,' Fuson writes, 'So I agreed to be interviewed by a journalist I trust: myself.'"

Study done in UK has shown that UK Citizens are, overall, vast unaware of the particular laws in their own country

A commentary on how relevant UK copyright laws are to current technological trends and lifestyles. A recent study conducted by Government backed Consumer Forum has revealed that almost 73 percent of consumers in Britain are unaware of the fact that under British law, it is illegal to copy music files from CD onto iPods, laptops or any other device.  The organisation conducted a survey of 2000 UK consumers, of which only 17 percent were aware that it was illegal to copy CDs and DVDs onto their computers, 15 percent knew they were not allowed to copy CDs to their iPods and almost 38 percent confessed of copying music files onto their digital players.  The research has thrown light on the outdated copyright laws in Britain, which still classify copying of content from CDs or DVDs onto digital devices as illegal.  The Consumer Forum has asked the government to amend the law, as millions of Britishers were unknowingly breaking British law by copying content on their iPods everyday. 

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.

"The cesspool that many newspapers occupy is the "Comments" sections of their websites. This is the space,  typically following a paper's own stories and editorials, where readers have their say. If postings to that space are completely unfiltered, it is sure to be stuffed with the rants and invective of people who have too much time on their hands (and too little gray matter between their ears.)"