Freedom of Speech?

(Newser) - With spam running rampant across the net, in-boxes have become heavily armed fortresses against the unsolicited hordes. Unfortunately, we’ve overdone it, writes James McGrath Morris in the Washington Post . Morris recently discovered that spam filters would gobble up the latest issue of his newsletter, the Biographer’s Craft, because of references to "young adult" books, "hot" authors, and “nasty” lawsuits. More »

(Newser) - Sarah Palin seems to think the Constitution is supposed to protect her from criticism. On a conservative radio show, Palin said the media is unfairly attacking her for her shots at Obama on Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, and that if the media “convinces enough voters that that is negative campaigning, then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.” More »

(Newser) - Parwez Kambakhsh won’t be executed for distributing literature on women’s rights, but the student and part-time journalist will spend the next 20 years in prison, an Afghan appeals court ruled yesterday. “This is arguably worse for him,” one human-rights advocate told the Los Angeles Times of the 24-year-old’s death sentence for blasphemy being reduced, noting the influence of radical Islam on the country’s “kangaroo-court justice.” More »

(Newser) - Virginia’s anti-spam laws are unconstitutional because they prohibit behavior shielded by the First Amendment, the state’s supreme court ruled today. The ruling overturns the conviction of Jeremy Jaynes, who received the nation’s first felony spam conviction in 2004, the Richmond Times-Dispatch says. Prosecutors alleged Jaynes sent up to 10 million emails a day from his North Carolina home. More »

(Newser) - A federal judge has ruled that protesters can be confined to a fenced-in zone at the Democratic National Convention because security concerns outweigh activists' right to free speech, Reuters reports. The ACLU and a coalition of protest groups had brought a lawsuit against Denver and the Secret Service over plans concerning what activists have labeled a"freedom cage." More »

(Newser) - A Paris publisher has launched a high-profile crusade to legalize an increasingly popular crime: the insulting of public officials, the London Times reports. After being fined €150 for calling a cop a connard —or stupid bastard—Jean-Jacques Reboux got even angrier, and accused civil servants of abusing the law to make money. "It's like something from the ancien régime," Reboux said. More »

(Newser) - "Teenagers have constitutional rights." That shouldn’t be controversial, but several schools are in court arguing that the First Amendment doesn't apply to students, writes Frank LoMonte in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer . Morse v. Frederick set a precedent last year, when Supreme Court judges ruled that students could be punished for a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner—even though it was off school grounds. More »

(Newser) - A variety of websites are deleting postings that could offend, and with full legal protection—sparking debate about whether free speech exists online. Case in point: an image of a young smoker posted on Yahoo's photo service. It was cut for promoting underage smoking, but the photographer calls it a comment on Romanian street life. "I never thought of it as a photo of a smoking kid," he said. More »

(Newser) - Patriotism is the word of the day, but what does it mean? For Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , it means fighting for your country’s ideals. "I believe I'm lucky to be an American because our founding document embraces the revolutionary idea that any citizen should be able to criticize his government without fear of retaliation," she writes. More »

(Newser) - Three tour guides in the cradle of democracy are taking the city to court over a law they say tramples on their constitutional rights, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer . The law compels Philadelphia guides to pay a fee and take a test to get a tour license—and the plaintiffs argue the requirements violate their First Amendment right to free speech. More »

(Newser) - A federal court has ruled that emails and text messages on work accounts—routinely monitored by some employers—are protected by constitutional safeguards against unreasonable search and seizure. The ruling only applies to electronic communications supplied through outside servers, not internal systems. The ruling forbids service providers from handing over records to employers, and requires police to obtain search warrants to access messages, reports the Los Angeles Times . More »

(Newser) - Several years ago American conservative journalist Mark Steyn published a piece denigrating Islam in Maclean's , the leading newsweekly in Canada. While its tone was sharp, its content was no more inflammatory than the material in American rightwing publications. But now Maclean's is facing trial for publishing hate speech, writes Adam Liptak in the Times , in a story highlighting the uniqueness of US free speech protections, and questioning whether they're out of date. More »

(Newser) - Hollywood is pressing the Federal Communications to allow studios to block digital video recorders from copying high-definition films before they're released to DVD, Ars Technica reports. In return, the studios promise to shorten the time it takes movies to get from theater to home TVs. The feds would need to waive rules barring cable providers from transmitting digital codes that block such copying. More »

(Newser) - Russian TV stations have just the solution for pesky opposition commentary—they simply keep it off the airways, even digitally erasing one anti-Putin analyst, the New York Times reports. Putin’s opponents are included in what some call a “stop list” of figures banned from television coverage. It’s “an excellent way to stifle dissent,” said the erased analyst. More »

(Newser) - A 15-year-old is facing charges for holding a sign calling Scientology a "cult" during a peaceful protest. A London policewoman asked the teen to remove the sign; when he refused, she handed him a court summons, the Guardian reports. Free speech and anti-cult groups are furious, particularly in light of recent gifts from the Church of Scientology to the London Police Department totaling thousands of pounds. More »

(Newser) - China apparently will continue to censor the Internet during August's Olympics, but says the international press will have the access it needs to function, Jacqui Cheng writes on Ars Technica. Officials said they would guarantee as much access “as possible,” but “controls on some unhealthy websites” would continue. In defense, they said, “every country limits access to some websites.” More »