Is the Internet getting sold to corporations?

Look around, people... the WWW is becoming a major spam network.

That's getting really a frustrating issue... most the the search engines on the web these days seems to be so sold out to e-business that it's nearly impossible to make just a simple websearch without having tons and tons of links to Amazon, eBay and other crappier commercail links!

Today I made a search to get some in-depth infos on a painting from Arnold Bocklin, on Google and Yahoo, and it gave me PAGES of links to commercial pages with no other purpose than to sell you stuff. The Internet was created for the free, public, sharing of information, and since we're in Bushworld, big businesses are trying to make it their own space, just as it ever belonged to them. Even ATS is on the slow process of getting commercial... and I loathe the idea that one day, they gonna charge you monthly fees to post in the forums (to the moderators that read this: if you ever lower yourselves to that point, prepare to get attacked from all sides!)

Now Wikipedia seems to be an interesting, but still very limited, altenative to the spam-infected Internet when it comes to search for some valuable infos. But I'm wondering, what are the other options? Can anybody propose useful search engines and good forums that are not being assimilated by corporate interest?

How fo do you think we should resist and fight against corporate control of what is on OUR property? Should we begin to make war plans? Gimme your thoughts, netizens!

Lol ATS is a good example of this. only it has been sold years ago..

[edit on 18-3-2005 by Hellraiser]

Originally posted by Echtelion
The Internet was created for the free, public, sharing of information,

Where did you get that information? The Internet was created by the Pentagon as a network to link U.S. military computers and stay up even during a nuclear onslaught. It was turned private years ago and corporations now own most of the backbone of the Internet.

djohnsto, that was the ARPAnet... It was developped by DARPA since the '60s. The user-friendly Internet that we all use since the early '90s was developped by the World Wide Web Consortium on the framework of ARPAnet for being accessible to everybody on the planet and to allow all users to equally communicate and share data between themselves, with no national boundaries. The network is public domain. It was such even when it was still ARPAnet.

www.w3.org...

Businesses are free to use the Internet for market, and I don't have any problem with businesses being online (I actually grealty benefited from eBay in many occasions), but the issue here is that the corporate presence on the WWW is beginning to severely alienate the free sharing of information and resources among the public.

Originally posted by Echtelion
Even ATS is on the slow process of getting commercial... and I loathe the idea that one day, they gonna charge you monthly fees to post in the forums)

The makeup of the board would certainly change. Could be for the better. Some people respect some of the things they pay for more than what they get for free.

But of course in order for ATS to survive in this manner, it would need to up the ante in terms of quality and interest. I'm sure it will be up to the challenge when the time comes.

Most of the backbone of the internet in the US is owned by MCI and has been for many years. The search engines are owned by various companies and are allowed to charge companies for better positioning of its website in a web search. It is called free enterprise. There are hundreds of search engines and most of them do not have any type of pay system.

Well of course the corporations run the net. Notice how in order to get an http of .com you have to buy it from a corporation? So much for free sharing of information. That and look at sites like IGN. They're at the top of most google searches concerning video games. And then when you find the info you need, they force you to join in order to access the info you desire.

Of course luckily ATS has the adds kept to a minimum of whats needed, and ATS is awesome enough to place the adds in unimportant areas. Of course ATS is privatly owned so Simon needs cash from somewhere to keep ATS going, plus the new literacy donations.

[edit on 3/19/2005 by cyberdude78]

I agree...it's free enterprise. And much is still to be had for free. Some ads are, of course, annoying. And maybe some info is harder to find because of ads ranking high in the search engines, but said info is still there if you search hard enough.

Yes, and I'm scared. Can I watch "Legally Blonde 2" with AJ Mclean Now?
Read above, I've been a viewer forever(7 years)now and I know their right.
So pull up a Backstreet Boy and watch a chick-flick or whatever movie he wants to watch. Just not "The Ring" or "The Ring 2". I had to use the bathroom nearly 12 times, b/c I drank a liter of water within 15 mintues.