WHILE MANY HAVE WELCOMED the unfettered reign of the Internet service providers (ISPs) coming to an end in the US in favour of network neutrality, a team of learned legal minds has warned that all might not be as it seems.

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Internet providers like Comcast and Time Warner are beginning to offer mobile 3G service as a bundle with home Internet, reports the New York Times. The goal: undercut wireless providers like Verizon and AT&T, who sell such services for around $60 a month.

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The day before they slipped out of Washington for the August recess, Reps. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009, which would give the deceptively benign ideal of "net neutrality" the force of law.

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Just days after ISPs in Spain confirmed talks with the music and movie industry had ended without success, entertainment companies have now backed away from their "3 strikes" demands after it became clear the Spanish government does not support their plan.

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The FTC has announced that it has closed down one of the most notorious of the rogue ISPs operating in the U.S. called Pricewert LLC. According to the FTC Pricewert LLC does business under several names including 3FN and APS Telecom.

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The practice of deep packet inspection has raised privacy concerns among several organizations, including The Free Press and Center for Democracy and Technology. Congress recently heard testimony about ISPs using the technology to target advertising at web surfers.

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Will BitTorrent be blocked by ISPs? If the forces representing the music industry have their way, that will be the case. In its latest push against P2P, the music industry is demanding that Internet service providers block all torrent-based file sharing sites.

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New Zealand's controversial plan to boot repeat copyright infringers off the Internet has been delayed by the prime minister five days before it was to take effect.

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For some sports fans, ESPN360, the online version of ESPN's television channel, is a cornucopia of more than 3,500 sporting events each year, viewable from the convenience of a computer. For others, it's a total bust. The only difference: their ISP.

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"Graduated response" isn't just for music; Ars has learned that the Motion Picture Association of America has been having similar discussions with US ISPs for some time and has already been involved in trial projects.

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On Friday, major news broke: the RIAA would (largely) abandon its widespread lawsuit campaign against individuals in favor of a "graduated response" partnership with ISPs.

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In a stunning turn of events, the US music industry has ceased its long-time litigation strategy of suing individual P2P file-swappers.

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Net eavesdropping firm NebuAd and its partner ISPs violated hacking and wiretapping laws when they tested advertising technology that spied on ISP customers web searches and surfing, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court Monday.

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In a sense, caps on Internet use are no stranger than the limited number of minutes a cell phone subscriber gets each month. Internet use varies hugely from person to person, and service providers argue that the people who use it the most should pay the most.

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Amazing revelations have emerged concerning already existing government plans to overhaul the way the internet functions in order to apply much greater restrictions and control over the web.

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A sharply divided Federal Communications Commission this morning slammed Comcast for blocking Internet access to some customers.

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Six of the UK's biggest net providers are believed to be backing a government plan to tackle music piracy online. The plan commits the firms to working towards a "significant reduction" in the illegal sharing of music.

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Bowing to continued pressure from the New York Attorney General, two more big-name American ISPs have shutdown access to dozens of Usenet newsgroups that contain child pornography - and many more that don't.

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ISPs playing ISPy

How would you feel if your ISP allowed a third party to install equipment at their datacentre which intercepted all your Internet traffic, (secretly so you wouldn't notice) so that your browsing could be tracked, webpage by webpage, entirely without your knowledge?

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In almost every industry, companies find reason to dislike their customer base. And although it's no different in the technology space, it's as if cell phone carriers and ISPs aren't afraid of hiding it.

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Back-room dealings in the European Parliament have resulted in a "three strikes" rule being included in a new telecoms bill -- the rule would force ISPs to kick people who've been thrice accused of copyright infringement off the Internet.

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Bandwidth caps are coming to Japan, but not in the way to which North Americans are accustomed. OCN, operated by NTT Communications, has decided to impose a daily upload limit beginning on August 1. The limit? 30GB per day. Upstream.

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Certain ISPs have been shown to rate limit or block BitTorrent traffic sent by their customers. While there are multiple reports of this on the web, only a few ISPs have admitted that they manipulate BitTorrent traffic.

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A massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism.

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin yesterday challenged several of Comcast's claims about how it operates its Internet network, taking his strongest stance yet against the cable operator.

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