While courts can slap gagging orders on established media to stop certain information being published, it’s very clear that they have little control over what members of the public post online on blogs and forums.

So it is with the case of Brendan Sokaluk, the man accused of deliberately starting one of the bush fires in Victoria, Australia.

The court may have stopped the newspapers from divulging Sokaluk’s photo and street address, some bloggers have been posting such information online. read more

Happy Monday, folks! It’s a slow news week in the Movable Type community. The one item I want to point out is the Photo Gallery Theme from Byrne Reese. Byrne maintains the Photo Gallery plugin, and now he’s building a theme for it based on the Mid-Century Template Set. Nice work, Byrne! I’m looking forward to the release of this theme.

Since I didn’t run across any other Movable Type news this week, I thought we could use this as an open thread to discuss all things MT. What do you love/hate about MT? What are your favorite plugins? What have you struggled with the most? What features do you want to see in a future release? Whatever your thoughts on MT, let’s discuss them in the comments.

Coinciding with her return to Broadway via Moises Kaufman’s “33 Variations,” legendary actress Jane Fonda has launched her own blog at JaneFonda.com. The blog allows fans an inside look at the scenes of her return to stage and her life.

“I was about to begin rehearsals for a new Broadway play after 45 years away from the stage and thought it might be interesting to take people through the process day by day,” Jane Fonda said.

The blog features photos, videos and several in-depth blog posts that will give readers a sense of her many ventures.

You can also follow her via Twitter at @janefonda. I did. She did not return the favor though.

As far as I’m concerned, putting together a “100 best blogs” post is potentially very easy (there are hundreds of millions of them) and yet extremely difficult — how do you narrow that list down to just 100 even in one genre?

The Sunday Times is the latest one of the established media to have a go at creating a list of jumping off points. The article is definitely aimed at those for whom reading blogs is not a current pastime — feed readers and blog directories are explained in a side panel.

Here we have a handful of blogs in each category — world affairs, celebrities, style, words, original thinkers, cult, comic relief, domestic politics (UK focused) and visual aids. That’s just 50 blogs, with film, science, art, the home, theatre, pop and classical coming next week. read more

One of China’s most influential bloggers, Xu Lai, who writes under the pseudonym Qian Liexian, was stabbed at a bookstore after a public reading.

The incident allegedly occurred in the store’s bathroom by two men who fled the scene.

The victim’s blog, “Qian Liexian Wants to Speak,” offers satirical observations on society and politics. Among topics Lai has recently covered include government corruption and the recent scandal of milk contaminated with an industrial chemical. However, at this time, it is unknown whether the attack was related to the blog.

Xu Lai is expected to make a full recovery and we hope he gets well soon.

With the recent spitting incident involving TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington and now this, it might be time blogger looked into hiring personal security details. It’s dangerous times out there, friends!

We’ll keep you posted on this story.

Back in November, Attributor released a study that many Webmasters and content providers intrigued. According the report, for many Websites, most of the viewings of their content do not happen on their page or their RSS feed, but on other sites.

Earlier this month, the same company announced the public beta of its new product, FairShare, a free service designed to help help bloggers track their’s content’s usage, check for license compliance and understand who is using their works and how.

Though the service has some limitations, it can be a valuable tool for bloggers to get a glimpse at how their content is used on the Web and where some of their untracked readers may be hiding. read more

The Consumerist has been reading the new Facebook Terms of of Service and if you’re protective of your stuff, you might want to read up on it. Basically, the deal is that if you upload anything to the social network, they can do whatever they want with it, even if you cancel your account. Head over to The Consumerist for a discussion (also: Techmeme) and some quotes from the various TOS. Worth to keep in mind if you’re a dedicated Facebook user for sure.

WordPress 2.7.1 is out. The first ever permanent tattoo of the WordPress logo is embedded. BuddyPress helps change how WordPressMU handles Plugins. New WordPress Plugin development book due soon. WordCamp Germany this weekend, with Miami and Denver coming up. New insights into WordPress 2.8 under the hood. And more from WordPress.tv and WordPress fan blogs.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.7.1 Released: WordPress 2.7.1, a maintenance release, is out. If you are using WordPress 2.7, take advantage of the automatic built-in upgrade. If you are not, then consider upgrading to WordPress 2.7. Sixty-five files were modified with 68 bug and feature fixes and improvements, and I covered more details about the release on my blog.

Permanent WordPress Tattoo: Ed Morita of Baker’s Hours in Hawaii is the first to put a permanent tattoo of the WordPress logo on his body. In January, he invited readers and WordPress fans to tell him where to place the tattoo and the wrist was the most popular response. I covered the event live on my blog, on the WordCast podcast, on Twitter (@lorelleonwp and @NctrnlBst), and it was picked up by many, including Mashable. In Ed’s story about the tattoo, he explains that it is meant to represent what it would look like if his skin was torn off to reveal a circuit board underneath with the WordPress logo. There has been much debate over whether or not the logo is the “right” one, and Matt Mullenweg confirms that it is the correct logo. The news has prompted another person on Twitter to hold an auction to get a tattoo, and several news agencies have contacted Ed Morita to cover the story. read more

Ian had a great question in a comment on my previous post. He asked:

How do you judge the balance between lots of people will be looking for that [popular keyword] against there are lots of results for that [popular keyword]?

Using your example, for “nba all star game 2009″ you’d be one of 500,000 results so how do you decide if that’s a worthwhile keyword to use?

There are couple things to consider when picking keywords to target. read more

According to Advertising Age, Twitter just received $35 Million in new funding, in spite of no business model and claiming they really didn’t need the cash infusion:

Twitter has landed a reported $35 million in additional venture funding, despite the fact it still lacks a business model. The funding values the company at $250 million, according to news reports.

…earlier this week the micro-blogging service shrugged off speculation, based on a British news report, that it would start charging corporate clients. It would not, it said, start charging anyone for services that are currently free.

In fact, Twitter said it didn’t need the cash infusion — but the additional money was too good to pass up. “Our strong growth attracted interest and we decided to accept a unique opportunity to make Twitter even stronger with a very attractive offer,” the company said on its blog.

The story was also covered by the LA Times, saying: read more