Last month millions of savvy consumers signed up to receive $40 government coupons to help pay for analog-to-digital television conversion boxes, devices that will be needed to keep many old TV sets working when the nation’s full-power broadcasters go all digital in February 2009. Now it appears all those on-the-ball consumers will actually be penalized for their on-the-ballness. Plus, Comcast pays people to pack a public hearing on net neutrality.

It’s our network and we can do anything we want. That’s the scary new mantra of cable giant Comcast when it comes to the issue of open Internet practices, also known as network neutrality. For the sake of every consumer who uses the Internet, the FCC needs to slap down Comcast hard and make it clear that it takes the principles of network neutrality seriously.

A new bill has been introduced in Congress that could go a long way toward keeping the Internet open and unfettered by corporate gatekeepers. The Internet Freedom Preservation Act would effectively enshrine the principle of “Network Neutrality” into law, making it a part of the landmark Communications Act of 1934. We think that's a great idea.