Wireline news from across the Web:
@FierceTelecom RT @TechCrunch: Amazon EC2 goes down, taking with it Reddit, Foursquare and Quora. Story | Follow @FierceTelecom
> A new Freedom House survey called Freedom on the Net 2011 reveals that the governments in 12 countries, including China, are launching cyber attacks against critics of their regimes. Article
> Cbeyond launched a social media contest asking participants to post to Twitter what benefits they see in cloud computing. Release
> President Barack Obama, in response to a question about how to encourage more students to pursue engineering and science careers, wants people to "feel the same about the next Internet breakthrough as they did about the Moonwalk." Article
> USAN, a cloud-based contact center technology provider, has introduced a website that it says can help enterprises track cloud computing contact center developments. Release
> Digital Management and Telcordia struck a partnership to deliver IPv6 transition services to government agencies, service providers, and businesses. Release
> A UK judge dismissed a suit filed by BT and TalkTalk over the Digital Economy Act, a measure that enables service providers to block illegal file-sharing sites and address offenders. Article
And finally ... The Rural Iowa Independent Telephone Association converged upon the U.S. Capitol this week to protest the FCC's National Broadband Plan over fears that it could compromise the amount of intercarrier compensation funds rural Iowa-based service providers receive from other service providers. Article