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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.

"The Internet, which many feared would draw viewers away from television, appears to be having exactly the opposite effect - at least when it comes to coverage of major events. Brian Stelter writes in The Times that TV executives have noticed big spikes in viewership of the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the Grammys and other special events that some of them trace to the effect of social networking sites."

Apple wants to ignite TV show sales, especially as it prepares to introduce the iPad tablet computer next month. But its proposals to lower prices across the board are being met by skepticism from the major networks.

"According to current Korean media law, foreigners cannot become chief executive officers or executive editors. The media ownership law also states that foreigners cannot own a majority share of any media outlet in Korea."

"The scheduling change is among the first examples of an informal new agreement U.S. theater owners are discussing with the six major Hollywood studios: The exhibitors would let the studios experiment more with DVD release dates. As a result, studios could each release one or two movies a year on DVD a month or so sooner than they usually do, according to people familiar with the matter. The seemingly minor move could portend a big shift in the movie business down the road. The nascent arrangement, which has been under discussion for several months, highlights the growing pressure on the longstanding backbone of Hollywood's business model, an elaborate system known as "release windows." By separating a movie's release in theaters from the time window of when it is released on DVD or cable TV, studios were able to maximize revenue. DVD sales, for example, didn't eat into a movie's take at the box office."

Could this be the year online journalism really crashes the party at the Pulitzer Prizes? With entry deadlines having passed for the Pulitzers and many other contests, the prospect that Internet-based work might take home major awards is one of many questions on prize-watchers' minds. Initial indications are that both online-only and collaborative online-print projects will be stronger this year.

"As Disney's Pixar prepares to release Toy Story 3 this summer, virtually every major toy maker -- including Barbie's Mattel Inc. -- has lined up to make dolls, action figures, construction sets, vehicles and board games based on the film. No fewer than 250 toys will begin appearing in stores before the movie's June 18 release -- three times as many as were made for Toy Story 2. And retailers are expected to clear shelf space for Buzz, Woody and pals, notwithstanding a recession that has slowed toy sales."

Exclusive output deals between HBO and three major Hollywood studios stand as major obstacles to a robust movie-dowload business, holding back a potentially lucrative distribution channel and creating conflict between the powerhouse divisions of TimeWarner -- HBO and Warner Bros. -- who for once find their interests at odds.

Several broadcast companies that reported earnings the past few weeks have pointed out that TV station revenues were down due to the lack of political ad spending in 2009. Since 2010 is a banner year for major Congressional races, local media researcher Borrell Associates expects that TV broadcasters will have something to cheer about. The same can't be said for online media, which will hardly see a fraction of the total $42 billion Borrell says will be spent on political campaigns.

Gamasutra analyst Matt Matthews has been examining 2009's console hardware results, revealing year-on-year revenue drops for all three firms' consoles, but a major $1.3 billion decline for Sony

Explores the economic angle of google's potential withdraw from China, and offers a competing argument that the firm's threats to leave may in fact be a face saving measure driven by the bottom line.

The Federal Communications Commission is asking all four major U.S. cell phone operators and Google to explain their early termination fee policies and how they communicate these to customers.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns both the NY Post and the Wall Street Journal, has been been put in the humiliating position of asking for a favor from his competitors. The Journal has been getting ready to launch a new edition in April, with an NYC metro section intended as a tough competitor to the Times. Meanwhile, Murdoch's News Corporation is upgrading the Post's printing plant in the South Bronx so that it can print the Journal and the Post. But there have been major delays on that, and now Murdoch needs to outsource some of The Post's printing, so he's been reduced to begging his enemies for help.

Merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, two of the major concert ticket vendors in the US, was approved by the US Justice Department. Consumer groups, independent promoters and ticket brokers all urged the department to block the deal, warning that it would give the resulting company the power to dictate terms for live entertainment at the expense of venues, artists and consumers. The companies argued that combining their ticketing and promotions arms would enable them to offer better services to venues and acts, and better value to fans.

A decade-old legal battle comes to an end as 17 major networks and production studios, along with seven talent agencies, agree to pay $70 million to thousands of writers.

"The Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan, announced last week, is aimed at providing nearly universal, affordable broadband service by 2020. And while it takes many admirable steps - including very important efforts toward opening space in the broadcast spectrum - it does not address the source of the access problem: without a major policy shift to increase competition, broadband service in the United States will continue to lag far behind the rest of the developed world."

"Halbreich describes the Sun-Times Media ownership group, which includes Chicago Blackhawks owner and liquor distributor Rocky Wirtz, as "entrepreneurial" and "closer to the business" than previous directors. "They've got great ideas," Halbreich said. "Also (they have) local contacts with major advertisers. We have board members who know folks really well. They pick up the phone, they call someone and the next day Barb Swanson, our senior VP for advertising, is sitting in the office talking about marketing opportunities.""

"A ChangeWave survey of 3,171 consumers -- conducted in the aftermath of that Apple announcement (Feb 1-10) -- shows a huge wave of pre-launch demand for the iPad and offers key evidence that the Apple tablet will have a major impact on the e-Reader, laptop and home entertainment markets."

While some media companies are narrowing their exposure to newspapers, Honolulu Star-Bulletin majority owner David Black is demonstrating his continued bullishness on print media with a bid to buy Canwest LP's chain of daily newspapers. If Black's bid to buy Canwest's newspapers is successful, it would make him the largest newspaper magnate in Canada. Most of Black's newspapers are small weeklies in western Canada. In addition to the Star-Bulletin, Black's U.S. newspapers include the Ohio-based Akron Beacon Journal.