"According to some lawyers, libel is dead. In 1997, 452 libel writs were issued. In the year to May 2007, according to research by publishers Sweet and Maxwell, there were 64."

Bill Thompson on the Sheffield Wednesday and Usmanov libel cases.

"British bloggers are particularly vulnerable to defamation complaints because of a previous court ruling that found that Internet providers qualified as publishers of libelous material if they did not react when alerted about a problem."

Indymedia UK has been issued with a takedown notice [10th of September & 21st of September] from lawyers acting for Alisher Usmanov. The notice served to Indymedia charged Indymedia with publishing allegedly libellous accusations about Usmanov …

"Billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s attempt to gag critical British websites backfired badly, and proved that freedom of speech is the one issue on which bloggers agree, writes Justin McKeating"

Both Schillings and Usmanov are much talked about in the blogsphere, as BlogPulse charts show. Surely there’s a PR lesson in there somewhere?

A timeline of the Alisher Usmanov blog libel case.

Tim Ireland has set up a temporary blog on Blogger since Bloggerheads was shut down over following a takedown notice sent to his hosts by solicitors acting for Alisher Usmanov.

Robin Hamman on the Usmanov libel blog takedown issue: "Anything less [than US-style immunity] puts content hosts in the uncomfortable position of having to make extra-judicial decisions about what content is and isn’t a breach of the law"

Robin Hamman is interviewed on FiveLive about l’affaire Usmanov.