Well, I got a surprisingly quick response from one of the MEP's that I contacted today and the frightening thing is he doesn't seem to understand what it's all about but, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised as so many politicians are out of touch and think the internet is the work of the devil and because of their ignorance they are easily led by other politicians who often seem to have agendas of their own.
If your in France the French government is really pushing hard to bring in three strikes and your out legislation, that means you get three warnings if you are suspected of d/loading copyrighted material after that you will be banned by your ISP and supposedly all other ISP's from accessing the net, that is what they are trying to do.
There was a podcast about it today and you can hear it here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/digitalp/
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Here's the reply I got from one of the MEP's.
Dear Michael,
Thank you very much for your email raising concerns about the Telecoms Package. I entirely agree with you that internet users should be able to freely use the Internet and benefit from its immense potential. We should all be able to decide which service we wish to subscribe to, in line with our own preferences with respect to the type of service and content we want to access.
Unfortunately I fear that you have been misled with respect to the proposed changes to the EU communications framework laws. The reforms are intended to open up choice and competition, not restrict it.
Existing National laws across the EU already allow operators to provide differentiated services, accommodating the diverse needs and desires of consumers across the market place.
The purpose of this review is to increase consumer protection, by strengthening operators' obligations to be transparent and provide information on contract conditions, including any limitations or restrictions which may apply to the services in question. In order for competition to operate effectively in the consumer interest, consumers need to be fully informed of the terms on which the services they contract for are provided, and they should also be free to switch providers easily and at no additional cost.
In addition, we are also increasing the enforcement powers of national regulators, enabling them to take action against operators who are in breach of regulatory obligations, and empowering them to impose minimum quality of service requirements on all operators.
These quality obligations would ensure that operators are not able to degrade, throttle or block applications, content or services in ways which are anticompetitive.
The current Framework has worked very well in driving the development of Internet services, and promoting fierce competition and high levels of innovation, to the benefit of all European citizens and European competitiveness. The major improvements we are making to the rules will provide incentives for investment in new broadband and wireless services.
Conservative MEPs in the European Parliament are committed to strong and active internet users in an open and competitive market. We will continue to work, in this and other initiatives, to ensure that your rights to access a wide range of content and services over the Internet continue to be safeguarded.
Yours sincerely,
Neil Parish MEP