Another anonymous blogger is in the defamation hot seat after anonymous commentators labeled a local school board member a "bigot," an "anit-Semite," and even "ugly." The target of those words didn’t take kindly to them and is demanding that Google reveal both the identity of the blogger and the commentators.

If a YouTube user feels one of their videos was an unfair casualty of Viacom’s recent war on copyright infringement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to know about it. The nonprofit organization has posted its call to the user-generated disenfranchised on their home YouTube turf.

A law introduced into the House of Representatives by Lamar Smith (R-TX) is whipping up a fight in the blogosphere. Aimed at combating online child pornography, the bill calls for Internet service providers to retain records on their subscribers.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Vodafone quietly disclosed they were working together with human rights organizations, investors and legal experts to develop a code of conduct for technology companies to help protect online free speech and privacy. The move is likely in response to proposed legislation that would be much more restrictive.

A recent court decision in Arizona is being touted as a victory for free speech and for the right to speak anonymously online.

I’ve been pondering my stance on Digg recently. When I saw Christian Mezei’s Unofficial FAQ regarding the Digg algorithm, I began to ponder the entire concept of social media, especially given the recent controversy surrounding which content makes the front page, and which gets buried.

In his misguided desire to become notorious, Michael Crook has become the preeminent villain of the blogosphere, the target of a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a laughing stock, and a fascinating case study into blog-ethics, copyright law on the Internet, the tenets of Fair Use, the reach of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and how its abuse can affect free speech.

People are busy. Email piles up. Probably why some of the prominent bloggers I solicited for a response to a British proposal that somebody regulate these free-wheeling, free-speaking modern yarn-weavers were too late for an earlier article. Shows what a swell, free market of ideas guy I am – and how nicely updatable Internet content is. Here’s a follow-up with those responses from people you know.

A neo-Nazi activist’s call for violence of a Canadian lawyer on his Blogspot blog and his Website prompted that lawyer and others to request Canadian regulators to authorize ISPs to block Internet content.