URGENT– The European open internet is in danger. The EU PARLIAMENT is voting on new rules on the 5th of MAY 2009 that will let broadband providers limit your access. Don’t let the them lock up the Internet! There will be no way back! [image from Visual Dictionary online]

Internet access is not conditional. Everyone who owns a website has an interest in defending the free use of the Internet… so has everyone who uses Google or Skype… everyone who expresses their opinions freely, does research of any kind, whether for personal health problems or academic study … everyone who shops online…who dates online…socialises online… listens to music…watches video…

Millions of Europeans now depend on the Internet, directly or indirectly, for their livelihood. Taking it away, chopping it up, ‘restricting it’, ‘limiting it’ and placing conditions on our use of it, will have a direct impact on people’s earnings. And in the current financial climate, that can’t be good.

The internet as we know it is at risk because of proposed new EU rules going through at the end of April. Under the proposed new rules, broadband providers will be legally able to limit the number of websites you can look at, and to tell you whether or not you are allowed to use particular services. It will be dressed up as ‘new consumer options’ which people can choose from. People will be offered TV-like packages – with a limited number of options for you to access.

For more… see: http://www.blackouteurope.eu/

This is not just a European problem. The struggle between an open Internet and one controlled by the big cable and phone companies that control access is ongoing in the US. The cable and phone companies want to be gatekeepers; they want to decide which Web sites and services you can use depending on which companies have paid them the most. They want to turn the open Internet into a closed, private toll road. For those who know little about the struggle for a free and open internet, here’s a beginner’s guide: http://www.freepress.net/resources/beginners_guideTo keep up with what is happening on a daily basis, and learn how you can help, read the Free Press Media Reform Daily.