Blackouteurope.eu

[Alexandros Papadopoulos]

Η δική μου εμπειρία: Έστειλα ένα pre-canned (λίγο τροποποιημένο) email
στους Άγγλους ευρωβουλευτές που έχουν τη τύχη να εκπροσωπούν τη
γειτονιά μου:

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Dear Gerard Batten, Baroness Sarah Ludford, Robert Evans, John Bowis
OBE, Claude Moraes, Charles Tannock, Jean Lambert, Syed Kamall and Mary
Honeyball,

The European Parliament is about to vote on the Telecoms Package (6th
May). Throughout the European Union, many thousands of people are now
very concerned about how this will limit our freedom and how it will
affect business in the EU. I am one of them. I believe that innovation
will be severely stifled by attempting to package the Internet in
pre-canned "packages".

The core principles of the internet that have brought us unparallelled
freedom of expression and an incredible amount of business growth and
innovation are being threatened by certain amendments that will now be
voted on.

These new laws will permit my broadband provider to offer a restricted
service, blocking my access to any site or service they choose. I am
concerned that these amendments will kill the life of the internet as
we know it and could have a serious, detrimental impact on Europe’s
economy.

Please protect our rights as online citizens, support amendments which
safeguard my rights to access and distribute content, services and
applications. Please reject any text which talks about ‘legitimate
content’ or placing limitations, restrictions or conditions on my
internet access. In particular, I would like you to guarantee my rights
to freely use the internet, and ensure that all websites and services
are accessible to all users.

The following links offer voting recommendations for 6th May to
safeguard these rights:

    *http://www.laquadrature.net/files/Voting%20list%20Harbour%20Report-A6-0257-2009.pdf
    *http://www.laquadrature.net/files/Voting%20list%20Trautmann%20Report-A6-0272-2009.pdf

I hope you will consider the above during your voting - a lot of people
are talking about this, but not everyone has the courage/faith to
write.

Yours sincerely,

<snip>

(συγγνώμη για τα line breaks, είμαι σε webmail και έχει πέσει το
copy/paste του πιθήκου)

Αυτό το έστειλα 24 ώρες πριν τη ψηφοφορία. Πριν λίγο πήρα μία
απάντηση, κονσέρβα φυσικά, που διαφωνεί με την άποψή μου δυστυχώς,
αλλά τουλάχιστον απάντηση!

Dear Mr Papadopoulos,

Thank you for your recent email. The European Parliament is fighting hard
to give consumers stronger rights in the field of electronic
communications. That will remain our priority in our work on the proposed
Universal Service and Users´ Rights Directive.
You may be interested to know about the many other consumer benefits
included in the report of the European Parliament, including:
•     An obligation on EU Member States to take action to establish the 116
000 missing child hotline service, the following amendments were proposed.
•     Contracts of a 24 month maximum duration to avoid consumers being locked
into long contracts  and the requirement for operators to offer 12 month
contracts to consumers, particularly for the benefit of  younger and more
mobile users.
•     Caller location information for consumers when using the EU emergency
number 112, which will save more lives.
•     Users would also be notified on the cost of subsidised handsets, should
the contract be terminated early, to avoid  hidden costs.
•     Number porting would be limited to one day so consumers do not face a
lengthy disruption regarding their phone use. However, there are
exceptions for cases of slamming and other mis-selling in cases when
consumers are switched against their will.
•     Disabled users to have equivalent access to communications services.
•     The importance of keeping the Internet open for consumers by enabling
regulation to intervene if a carrier discriminates against a particular
service provider, for example by blocking or slowing traffic, is also
included in the report
•     A new flexibility for universal service requirements to take into
account new technologies, and proposals for the Commission to complete its
review on US obligations by January 2010.
•     Consumers will be better informed of available tariffs, usage patterns
and have the right to cost control notifications when monthly bills exceed
their set threshold
•     Data breach notification requirement when consumers´ data is lost via an
electronic communications service provider.
As regards the specific issue you raise, the measures we have negotiated
will include increased transparency to enable consumers to make informed
decisions about which services they would like to use. This means that in
circumstances when Internet Service operators do decide to restrict access
to certain services, such as the current practice of some mobile phones
that block Skype, the consumer will be able to decide not to use that
service provider and opt for another which does provide Skype.
Where operators monitor or shape traffic to sustain service delivery at
times of peak demand, consumers should be advised of the approach taken
and the impact on service quality. Neither of these provisions condones
anti competitive or discriminatory behaviour against certain types of
traffic. In these cases, regulators already have the power to intervene
under the general provisions of the rules authorising communications
providers.
Thank you for your interest in this subject.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Honeyball MEP

Please see below for link to my blogsite
http://thehoneyballbuzz.com/2009/04/29/crisis-averted-beneficial-telcoms-package-on-verge-of-being-approved-by-european-parliament/

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Εν ολίγοις με γείωσε με αναμενόμενη ευγένεια.

Η συγκεκριμένη κυρία διαφωνεί με το παρόν one-size-fits-all σχήμα
Internetικής κατανάλωσης και υποστηρίζει τη τεμαχιοποίηση της
πρόσβασης σε "πακέτα χρήσης" όπως στην τηλεόραση, που έχεις 1000
κανάλια, όλα με σκουπίδια. Ευχαριστημένος; Όχι. Έκπληκτος; Καθόλου.

Όπως ειπώθηκε και νωρίτερα σ'αυτό το thread, πιστεύω και γω πως αν οι
εκλογές μπορούσαν να αλλάξουν τα πράγματα, θα ήταν παράνομες. Οπότε
μιλάω σε αυτούς τους ανθρώπους μόνο και μόνο για να μη σιγήσω, και
επειδή το θεωρώ καλύτερο απ΄το να λέω απλά πως "τίποτα δε γίνεται" και
να νιώθω αποκομμένος από τις αποφάσεις που διέπουν τη ζωή μου.

Αυτά τα ολίγα.

-A