Net neutrality might be a bit of a touchy subject in the United States, but progress is being made in Europe. The Netherlands has become the first country to enact net neutrality laws, preventing ISPs from blocking or slowing down different types of internet traffic. It also stops ISPs from charging extra to access specific websites or services. The legislation was first put forward in June 2011, but just passed into law on Tuesday.

This week the inventor of the internet Tim Berners-Lee spoke on several subjects involving data sharing on the web – perhaps most important of all on CISPA, a bill currently up for review in Washington. We’ve spoken about CISPA before – also known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, and have gotten some positive and very negative feedback on it from you, the readers, and groups like Facebook – who say it’s great. Berners-Lee, generally considered an expert on how the web works since he invented it, after all, is worried about the bill’s implications.

Chinese media are reporting that a youth was so desperate for an iPad that he sold a kidney to pay for one.

The 17-year-old boy, a resident of Anhui province, reportedly came upon online information describing how he could hawk a kidney over the Internet – just what he needed, as he was in need of cash to buy an iPad 2.

Another day, another threat to internet freedom. According to International Business Times, beloved Texas Representative Lamar Smith is the author of a new bill that includes extreme surveillance provisions, and a name that will make opponents sound like criminals: H.R. 1981 (bump that last digit up three times for a more fitting title), or the 'Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011.'

The new name has outraged many opponents of SOPA and other bills that could bring more government control to the internet, like PIPA and ACTA. It's hard to imagine the whole world turning out against a bill with the words 'protect' and 'children' in the title, regardless of the actual contents of the bill.

Apple has asked for more clarity over how patents deemed crucial to industry standards should be handled.

The firm wrote a letter to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in November, which has now been reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The iPhone maker called for "more consistent and transparent" application of rules designed to ensure that such intellectual properties were licensed.