Joe Lieberman’s Senate Homeland Security committee passed this week a “cybersecurity” bill that would expand the President’s powers and control of the Internet in a national emergency. In addition to Lieberman, the bill’s sponsors include Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and Susan Collins (R-ME). But it was Collins’ defense of the bill that should send shivers up the spines of anyone who cares about the Internet.

It was no surprise when the Wall Street Journal reported that senior officials at the Federal Communications Commission were meeting privately with affected industry to consider possible solutions to the disagreement over “net neutrality.” But why are they allowed to do that?

In an exciting breakthrough, the FCC is set to reclassify broadband services in a manner that will protect net neutrality.

The Wall Street Journal says that the FCC will move to reclassify broadband services to give them a greater ability to regulate in that space, protecting their intentions to reinforce net neutrality and transform broadband access for the 21st century. . . but there is still plenty of time for them to screw it up.

In early April, a federal court stripped the FCC of its power to regulate the Internet. Now it seems the Obama administration is considering doing nothing in response, giving power over our Internet to the greedy phone and cable companies. To understand how we got to this infuriating juncture we need a bit of a [...]

Back in 2002, the Bush administration gave the phone and cable companies what they wanted and classified broadband outside the normal regulatory framework for two-way communications networks like phones. Fast forward to 2009, when the FCC came down on Comcast for blocking legal traffic on their networks. An appeals court overtuned the lawsuit, basically saying the FCC has no legal standing to regulate the Internet. Which, on its face, is crazy.

All the FCC needs to do to be able to regulate the Internet again is simply reverse Bush’s mistake. And indeed, an earlier Supreme Court ruling on Bush’s original move confirms this – the Court essentially said the FCC is allowed to reclassify services.

To reclassify, the FCC needs to hold a vote of its five member board. And the votes are there – Obama appointee Chairman Genachowski has been a strong supporter of net neutrality and its assumed the other two Democratic chairman would vote with him.

So, will the Chairman and FCC do it? So far, we don’t know.

Tomorrow at 2:30 pm, the Senate Commerce Committee will meet to discuss the administration’s National Broadband Plan. However, given the court ruling last week that the FCC can’t regulate the Internet under its current classification, the focus will be on net neutrality.

While the DC Circuit Court ruling on the FCC’s regulation of net neutrality and broadband Internet would appear to require legislative action for reversal, a key litigator in the case tells FDL News that the FCC could, if they chose, work through the ruling on their own by reversing some of the policies of the Bush Administration which sought to deregulate the online space.

Most of the industrialized world pays less for it yet gets more. There is a stark imbalance between the rich and the poor’s access to it. Enormous and powerful corporations want the government to “reform” the system by delivering them lots of customers and goodies and then staying out of their way.

I speak, of course, of broadband internet.

On Thursday, 72 Democrats sent a letter to the Chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski. The letter concerns net neutrality, which, according to the Chairman, is set to be enshrined as the FCC’s official policy.

The letter is very odd, especially if you’re not well versed in telecom lobbyist lingo. It lays out “concerns” relating to net neutrality that really don’t make much sense.