From the "duh" files

An Indiana appellate court has ruled that MySpace postings criticizing a school principal's policy (though loaded with expletives) are constitutionally protected political speech. Um, this is news? Political criticism posted on the internet, be it at MySpace or anywhere else, is considered speech that can't be the basis for criminal prosecution because of objectionable content alone. Why was that ever in dispute? Who are the dumbasses who decided to prosecute this girl in the first place?

A good rule of thumb for the internets is that if it would be protected if you said it on the sidewalk or in a newspaper, then it's protected here too. Nothing about the internet specifically makes it any different from any other form of speech in terms of what is or is not protected. All the internet may change is jurisdiction, venue, and possibly damages in the case of defamation claims. (Oh, and yes your ISP or host of a particular website can probably kick you off as a customer/contributor if they don't like the content of what you post, because they're a private bidness with no obligation to host content they find objectionable.)

There was a push as the internet first became popular to restrict content similarly to how the FCC restricts television broadcast content, but the Supreme Court smacked that shit down hard. The tubes shall be free!