We did it, two minuets after Youth News reported on the SOPA laws, rumours broke that the controversial laws had been postponed, I knew having Barack on the mailing list was a good idea!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that "in light of recent events" the "stop online piracy act" and the "stop IP" bills would be "postponed."

One can only presume he was referring to the protests reported upon in Youth New's earlier post

http://www.youthnews.co.uk/#/home/4559071019/US-plans-to-clamp-down-on-piracy-amid-threats-of-internet-shutdown-and-bank-break-ins/895704

There are two ways of looking at this it appears to me: Either this is a positive step for freedom of speech in the USA and shows how sustained campaigning can have a real impact. However it could be argued that this shows the US Senate buckling under the corporate pressure of high profile internet giants.

Whatever the case i can certainly get away with posting this official photo of the white house for a little while yet!

A storm has been brewing in the USA and now its caught the eye of more than a few computer Geeks. Yesterday the US made their first major step forward in a quest to stopping online piracy, they shut down a web site called Megaupload, but it is only the beginnings of their plan to censor the internet of copyrighted material.

The US Senate is currently considering legislation that would hold online organisations, not individuals, responsible for copyright infringement. This could mean that sites like You Tube, Wikipedia, Twitter and even search engines like Google could be sued if copyrighted material was found to be on their site.

The two bills that would give this legal power are "the stop online piracy act" and the "stop IP" bill. If brought in the changes would certainly bring an end to internet culture as we know it, it would make sharing information or opinions much harder and may even effect blogs like this.

There has been severe resistance to the bills, on the 19th of January Wikipedia shut down its English pages in protest and many other popular sites made similar protests. Perhaps more sinisterly the web hacking group Anonymous released a video claiming that if Megaupload was not saved they would shut down many of the internet's most used sites including Facebook and You Tube. They also threatened to hack into some major international banks, but promised not to distribute any account holders information. Anonymous have made many threats in the past, some have not come to fruition. However, they have taken credit for many high profile hacking operations including taking down PayPal in July 11, so make of it what you will.

This is more than likely to be the first of many threats, in this most controversial of topics, from both sides of the argument.

On March 3rd 2011 the European Court of Justice ruled that women should not benefit from cheaper car insurance than men. The court believes that to make distinctions between sexes is discriminatory and as a result motor insurance for young women could rise by up to 60%.

The change will come into effect on the 21st of December 2012. With the date looming youth news is going to analyse the facts and try to establish what the ruling will mean for young drivers and find some solutions to rising insurance premiums.

Based on best estimates;

Insurance premiums for young women will rise by up to 60%.

Insurance premiums for young men will fall by up to 10%

The change will increase the net monetary intake for insurers if demand for policies stays at its current levels.

The solutions if you still want to buy cheap young drivers insurance after the ruling? Limited. Putting yourself on your parents' insurance makes little difference to premium prices and if you are the main driver is illegal. Downsizing engine capacity is a good idea, but still won't make your insurance prices cheap.

There is, however, one solution an increasing number of young drivers are opting for in order to keep insurance prices down and that is driving old and classic cars. Older cars are generally cheaper to insure, a VW beetle being a popular choice with polices available at around £1300 for an 18 year old. Even cheaper are policies on Citroen 2cv's or Morris minors which can be found for around £700.

Whilst a classic might not be the most Practical choice they will bring with them a large reduction in insurance premiums for young men and women. Which will be appealing after December 21st when average insurance premiums for 18 year old will be around £4000 for a normal car.