The US Government is recognizing the citizen blogosphere’s function in the operation of the press by introducing new legislation to offer bloggers the same protections as traditional journalists.

A bill, not written by Congress, requiring that US representatives actually read legislation before voting on it, under penalty of perjury, has been around a couple of years, but hasn’t received much attention. The authors of the bill aim to remedy that through an online viral campaign, leveraging the sudden power of social networking.

This is what happens when good companies go public: the principles that made them good, even necessary, to the point of inspiring a romantic loyalty among their customers, are whittled away at until only those principles which are profitable remain. If it’s true that Google is reconsidering its view of Network Neutrality, let it be said that this is the reason why.

Google says it’s not true, by the way, but we’ll get to that later. This is an exploration of what could happen, a seemingly very likely ethical pickle the search company could find itself in down the road.

Marc’s The Video Library of Alexandria post on O’Reilly Radar connected a set of dots for me that I can’t believe I never connected on my own.

In that, it certainly seems like an appropriate purchase for Google, much like DejaNews before it.

First let’s echo Ron White when he says, “you can’t fix stupid.” Now that we agree on that, let’s also doubt that imposing stiffer penalties on those stupid enough to post video evidence on YouTube of themselves committing a crime won’t really act as a deterrent. Because, again, you can’t fix stupid.

CEO Mark Hurd, ex-board chairman Patricia Dunn, and former general counsel Ann Baskins were among the Hewlett-Packard employees who were lambasted by Congress for their roles in a spying scandal that has brought criticism and law enforcement scrutiny to the company.

Canadian telecom regulators denied the request of a Jewish human rights lawyer, asking the government to allow Internet service providers to block access to U.S.-based white supremacist’s websites.

AOL’s shocking searcher log release has reignited the debate in Congress over whether to restrict Internet companies’ use and storage of user data. Though a bill aimed at protecting user privacy has been effectively tabled since February, the fallout from AOL’s data dump may bring it back into light.

China’s standard practice of blocking access to certain websites appears to have inspired some members of the US Congress. Social networking sites like MySpace.com are the target of proposed legislation that would block access to them in schools and libraries.

The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee voted 34-22 against a bill that was supposed to aid in the fight for net neutrality.

Just when Net neutrality seemed a lost cause in Congress, lawmakers began to consider shifting regulatory power to the Federal Communications Commissions in the form of case-by-case fines of up to $500,000. The FCC could levy fines if telecoms are judged to be violating Net neutrality principles.

During the Congressional smackdown on search engine companies over their business practices in China, one Congressman raised the issue of surveillance with Yahoo.

MSN, Yahoo, Google, and networking company Cisco all sent staffers to be part of a House Subcommittee hearing on their business practices in China.

“I do not understand how your corporate leadership sleeps at night,” said California Democratic Representative Tom Lantos, addressing executives of the major search engines earlier today.

The House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations, and the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, hosts Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco in Washington, DC.

Telcos Pledge Neutrality, But Its Not What You Think.

Voice Of America reports that American congressmen took to the floor today, blasting internet companies for being partners in censorship efforts, during a briefing earlier today.

Three out of the four companies invited to tomorrow’s congressional briefing on American companies enforcing Chinese censorship have flat out refused to attend.

Given the opportunity to serve as targets for Congressional outrage and grandstanding, Google and Microsoft declined the invitation, as did Cisco, while Yahoo has yet to respond.

A one-week ban on IP addresses associated with the US Congress will stay in effect until the Wikipedia Foundation can collect comments on abuses of Wikipedia by Congressional staffers.

After being a media piata over the course of the week, Google has come back firing at its critics, led by a lengthy post by its senior policy counsel, Andrew McLaughlin.