This question came up in our group on Saturday. We discussed it and I ruled in favor of the original three movies. Networks of information "internets" are local to a system, depending on the development of that system. I'll get with them and fill them in on the Holonet, but let them know that it is similar to the internet in China, there but very heavily monitored/restricted.

I'd say both, because accessing anything that isn't Imperial propaganda would take some skill.

Aye. If the character in the OP wants to be a walking encyclopaedia, his shtick could be the difference between what he knows and what the official databases say.

So while googling a non-human species, you get notes on how the species is sub-human in intelligence, bestial in habits and the only contribution they are fit to make to the New Order is unskilled physical labour. While the character can give a rundown of said species cultural history.

When it turns out the character is carrying one of the few remaining versions of the Holonets equivalent of Wikipedia before it was vandalised by the Empires Ministry of Truth to bring it in to line with the philosophies of the New Order in his head, well, the Hutts want him to sell on the information, the Empire wants him to suppress the knowledge and the Rebellion wants him to preserve the knowledge for future generations.

I never understood how it was possible that an entire planet could be blockaded and invaded and people on Coruscant wouldn't know about it!

But I think it's meant to represent that information technology in Star Wars is very different from the way we know it.

sh*tty writing and major plot holes explains how... but I digress.

I'm going with no interwebs outside of military or government installations and then it will require a Slicer or access to pass codes. But a Droid with the proper programming (Knowledge Skill) could have access to information like a library, just not up to date Google news kind of stuff.

The SW universe during this era was more like the world during say the Roman Empire than our world now. With 1000s of worlds spread across the galaxy news got around but through trade routes and military couriers (the Imperial Holonet or even actual ships), rather than at the tip of your fingers. It may not make sense to us now but considering the technology/power required to communicate across the distances involved having a personal level easily accessible internet would be quite difficult to maintain, especially during war time.

I never understood how it was possible that an entire planet could be blockaded and invaded and people on Coruscant wouldn't know about it!

Ah well, given their expense, it is common for most systems to have only a single hyperspace transceiver facility through which all of their holonet traffic is routed.

Since the transceivers are sensitive and can be easily knocked offline by hardware failure or local hyperspace conditions, it isn't unheard of or indeed especially uncommon for a system to drop off the net for a few days, weeks, or more rarely but not outside the realms of possibility, months at a time.

Back to the OP, I'm not sure a Computers Skill would be required for his searches. Anybody can use Google (and yes, I assume the SW universe has everything we have and then some, but also a lot more security depending where you are). Do finding a local cafe or watching a TV show even require a roll? It's probably already in your data pad. Watching a TV show doesn't make anyone an expert on anything, certainly not enough for the Lore skill to kick in.