The 350-page plan, which took nearly a year to complete, was delivered to Congress last week.

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AT&T's top lobbyist said in a blog post this morning that Congress should decide who has authority over broadband services and that lawmakers should step in before the Federal Communications Commission tries to reclassify broadband.

Jim Cicconi, who heads AT&T's Washington office, said, "If there are questions about the authority of the FCC in the Internet ecosystem, the proper answer is not for the FCC to get adventurous in interpreting its authority, as some are urging. Instead, any question of the FCC's jurisdiction over the Internet should properly be referred to the Congress for resolution."

His blog post comes a day after Verizon executive Tom Tauke said in a speech that it is Congress' responsibility to rewrite the Telecom Act to account for the evolving technology used for communications purposes these days. He also questioned whether the FCC is the best agency to oversee the broadband industry. Instead, the Federal Trade Commission might be better suited for the job, or a new agency altogether.

"The FCC derives its authority from Congress, and if the courts say the FCC lacks the authority ti needs to do what it wants to do, the proper--and constitutionally correct--answer is to ask the Congress to address the question," Cicconi said in the blog.

"Any other answer will appear as a means-justifies-the-ends rationalization by the Commission...an action it can't reasonably expect anyone in disagreement to accept. At best, it would lead to litigation and investment uncertainty."

Tauke said that if the FCC tries to reclassify broadband as a Title II service in order to justify net neutrality regulations, the FCC would wind up back in court.

A draft international copyright treaty supported heavily by the United States would require Internet service providers to cut Web connections to those who habitually steal music and movies.

If ultimately included in that international pact, signed by the president and ratified by the Senate, the rule would mandate ISPs begin “adopting and reasonably implementing a policy to address the unauthorized storage or transmission of materials protected by copyright or related rights.”

The treaty later defines more explicitly what that policy should be: A "three-strikes" rule that would require the "termination" of the offending users' Web connections. ISPs that fail to adopt that approach could then face stiff legal penalties, including costly copyright claims in court, according to the draft document.

The controversial provision arrives by way of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) -- a multilateral treaty being drafted chiefly by the United States, European Commission, Switzerland and Japan.

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Republicans are claiming new media domination in the healthcare debate set to wrap up today.

House Republicans said that a flood of traffic and page views flowed into GOP websites this weekend, and that thousands of new followers signed up to follow @GOPLeader, the Twitter page for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

"The numbers don’t lie; when the American people went looking for the straight story on Washington Democrats’ government takeover of health care online, they went straight to the GOP," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner. "This is just another example of how Republicans are dominating the field of forward-looking direct media.”

Republicans touted the numbers of views that flowed into the videos they posted on YouTube over the weekend, with 425,000 viewers flowing to one video of Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) appearing to say Democrats make up rules as they go along. (That video was posted atop the conservative Drudge Report.) Boehner's floor speech against the health bill also drew 105,000 viewers.

The GOP also said it was "crushed" but new followers on Twitter over the weekend, pointing to statistics showing them as having picked up almost 3,000 new followers between March 18th and Wednesday.

But Republicans also needled Democrats for their Twitter presence during the debate, noting: "Judging by the Leader and Speaker’s Twitter accounts – Speaker Pelosi has yet to send one tweet and Leader Hoyer follows no other users -  Democrats aren’t interested in listening at all." (Emphasis theirs.)

Update, 1:37 p.m.: A spokeswoman for the House Republican Conference emails to note the GOP.gov website has received approximately 80,000 hits since Friday, too.

Cross-posted to the Twitter Room.

Google's newly unfiltered Chinese search portal now displays select Twitter posts, in clear defiance of Beijing's long-standing ban on the social-networking site.

Some of those tweets touch upon taboo topics, including methods by which users can circumvent China's aggressive firewall, according to The Los Angeles Times, which first noticed the changes. 

Google on Thursday also published an explanation of its decision to change its China search policy in a blog post fully translated into Chinese.

The post mirrors Google's announcement earlier in the week that it could no longer comply with Beijing's Web restrictions, following a January cyberattack on the company believed to have originated in China.

Ultimately, both moves are likely to infuriate officials in Beijing, who are already apoplectic with Google's decision to circumvent its censors by redirecting users to its unfiltered Hong Kong page.

Users in China this week have reported erratic access to many of Google's reassigned pages, as Chinese censors seek to regain control of content once restricted by its so-called "Great Firewall." But Google's move Thursday could prompt state leaders to take further action against the search company, which has previously said it would leave China's search market altogether if necessary.

A man suspected of hacking the official Twitter account of President Barack Obama was arrested by French police Tuesday then released Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported. 

The suspect, a 25-year-old unemployed Frenchman, was taken into custody as the result of a joint operation with U.S. FBI agents that has lasted for about two months.

The man, who used the pseudonym "Hacker Croll," was able to access Obama's account on the microblogging site. The account was established and is primarily used by the Democratic National Committee. The president has rarely, if ever, posted on the account himself.

Here is more from AFP:

He was questioned in police custody in the central city of Clermont-Ferrand and has been ordered to appear in court in the same city on June 24.

"He explained how he did it. He's not a genius," said the source.

"He was a young man spending time on the Internet. He acted as a result of a bet, out of the defiance of the hacker. He is the sort who likes to claim responsibility for what he has done," added prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat.

Hacking into a database is a crime in France which carries a maximum two-year prison sentence.

San Francisco-based Twitter did not immediately reply to an email from AFP about the arrest while the FBI said it was looking into the report.

[...]

The hacker, who attacked the Twitter accounts of several U.S. celebrities, had also attacked Facebook pages and e-mail accounts operated by Google and other providers, the police said.

But he had never attempted to profit financially from his hacking activities on Twitter, in which users can send out messages of 140 characters or less, they added.

(Cross-posted from the Twitter Room)

Rep. Doris Matsui, (D-Calif.) said she's working on smart grid legislation as it relates to broadband.

"The Plan recognizes the critical role that broadband will play in moving our nation toward a more sustainable path of greater energy independence and efficiency by including a series of recommendations to modernize our nation’s Smart Grid," she said in her prepared opening remarks at today's hearing held by the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.

"I plan to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would compliment many of the FCC recommendations on Smart Grid so this nation can promote a smarter electric grid that empowers consumers to make choices that can save us energy, and can save them money."

Yesterday, the House Environmental Subcommittee passed a bill to take measures to protect the smart grid from cyber attacks and other telecom-related intrusions.

Matsui will release more details about her own bill in the coming weeks.

Rep. Jim McDermott will introduce legislation today to tax online gambling and send the proceeds to foster care.

McDermott’s bill, an updated version of legislation he introduced early last year, also would give 6 percent of online gaming taxes earned within their borders to state and tribal governments.

McDermott (D-Wash.) said he made the changes because state government budgets have been hit hard by the recession and social services, like children’s health insurance, are suffering.

“The major reason is to make it possible for states to have access to online gambling revenue,” McDermott, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, told The Hill.

Take a look at the full story from today's paper.

The Indian government on Wednesday signaled Dell Inc. could relocate its product production out of China to a "safer environment" -- but the U.S.-based computer company explicitly denied those reports on Thursday.

“There was no discussion concerning any change in how or from where Dell will source component parts for the computers it manufactures in Asia,” a Dell spokesperson told Business Week.

The conflicting comments stem from a release posted on an official Indian website following a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Dell executives.

Singh allegedly said in a March 23 speech that Dell would prefer to relocate its $25 billion equipment procurement business from China to an "environment with climate conducive to enterprise with security of legal system."

But Dell disputed the prime minister's remarks in an e-mail to Business Week on Thursday. Indian officials later declined to comment on the exchange, and a copy of the prime minister's speech once posted on India's Press Information Bureau website was promptly taken down.

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