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Who owns the Internet?

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by onlineph

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Me and my friends has a smal grouod discussion on some technologies that has help the planet.

Our small group discussion stopped when I posted a question "Who owns the internet anyway?"

Well, it really puzzled me. There are many ISPs but are they subscribed to a bigger ISP? and if they are to whome does the BIG ISP subscribes?

Please bear with my out of the blue questions.

31 replies

by rob mekel

and all others on TR ... :D

While in fact it's ... mmm ... what was it where the internet came from ... Arpanet ...
then in the early 80's from US over to UvA ... good ol'times :)

by dr dij

Who owns the "telephonenet"?

nobody. it is a mix of companies and govt telcom companies that cooperate according to standards.

Who owns the "electricnet"?
Nobody. it is a mix of electric companies, with some long distance ties to share power.

Who owns the "cableTVnet"?
nobody. again a mix of companies by country, with satellites and data links to share programming from the sources.

Who owns the "SatelliteTVnet"?
nobody. Ok, dish TV and the other company.

Who owns the "roadnet"?
typically govts of the area the roads are in, along with a few private toll roads.

This question is actually hilarious: an otherwise very intelligent entrepreneur who owned the bulk of the company I was working at, turned to me and said in the wide-eyed amazement of a 5 year old asking 'Why?' or the techno-dazzle hype of an iPhone ad: "[Dr Dij], who owns the Internet?"

It was all I could do to not roll off my chair laughing.

"Mommy, who owns the internet?"
"Is Santa-Claws real? - I can find a website that tracks his progress"
"Why does Google-Ocean show lines that look like Atlantis" [hint- they are artifacts of sonar torpedoes that are dragged around in lines to map the ocean floor]

by dr dij

Have you seen the Futurama episode with Santa Claws ?

(is year 3000) He is santa turned into evil robot, and every year brings lumps of coal for just about everyone, on his shooting rampage. They visit his factory on Pluto where he enslaves small aliens in sweatshops to produce the toys (with exploding parts)

Is by guy who wrote simpsons. Was on comedy channel before Daily Show but seems to be gone now. Fry's has the cds of season episodes.

by boxfiddler Hot topic

candied ginger around?
A little - I do mean a little - should help.

Also, saltines or oyster crackers sometimes help.

And Coke or Gingerale over crushed ice (forces sipping).

Poor techman... :(

by w2ktechman

I can move around today, yesterday I was more or less comatose.

Today I am moving around and trying to get things ready. I should be good enough for the W word tomorrow ~crossing fingers~

Personally, I am just glad I am better off than Jaqui was..

by maxwell edison

Just do a Web search with the key words [i]who owns the internet[/i].

Happy reading.

My short answer, by the way, is no one and everyone.

by thechas

Part of the issue here is that there is no discrete physical entity that is the Internet.

The Internet is a network of of communication lines and computers.

You most likely own the computer that you use to access the Internet.

Your cable, phone provider, or local government owns the lines that connect your local network to the broader network.

The high speed data lines that link your local provider to the broader network (the so-called backbone) are mostly owned by the large telecom companies.

Outside the US, in some countries, the government owns both the local lines and the backbone.

The server hosting the web page you are viewing might be owned by the company who's name is associated with the site. But, might be owned by a web hosting company.

The content on any given web page may be owned by the site. Might be provided by the originator, or might be leased.

When you sign up for a site like TR where you can post your thoughts, you had the chance to read over a user agreement. Most of the sites require you to relinquish all rights to the content you post to their site.

Chas

by onlineph

Well this helps alot!

Of all the 14 posted reply I got, yours has the best simple but comprehensive explanation.

Other even ridculed me. They made fun of my question. I though thet are professinal IT persons but they are not. They don't know how to reply a question.

Someonce even told me to brows the internet. well I preferred to post m\this discussion here because I believe I am to get a P2P fresh explanation.

Actully, I'm nota tech person at all I subscribe on this site because there's alot to learn here.

by charliespencer

And you don't know how to ask one. You started your post with the 'Start a Discussion' button, not the 'Ask a Question' button. 'Questions' in the proper forum are treated more seriously than 'Discussions' here at TR, and are rarely ridiculed.

Another reason you caught flak is that you could have Googled or Wikipediad your topic in less time than it took you to join TR and start your discussion.

While you are not a tech person, please recognize that this is a tech site. The membership expects people to do their own research before asking questions.

by w2ktechman

IT Pros because you got ridiculed?

Then how is other portions of the site helpful to you? You dont know if we are just trying to mess with you or not?

by jiminpa

All you got was a little good natured ribbing from the class clowns. You haven't seen ridicule.

by jdclyde

origins, developed by US tax dollars, but never classified, so left open to all. That part is still "public domain".

I have no idea what ownership or responsibility for trans-Atlantic lines there would be.

And of course, there are the oppressive countries like China that TRY to rule their share of the back bone with an iron fist.

Guess it all comes down to where you are at, where the end server is at that you wish to connect to, the path to get there, and the root DNS you need to connect to.

Not to mention how even the US government has no direct hand in the governing of the internet.

I wonder if this will trigger yet another "we need to give control to the UN" discussion/flamewar?

by aride4ever

I believe Teramark owns the underwater fiber between Florida and Latin America. check out teramark NAP of Americas. Massive demark rooms with massive amounts of dark fiber etc running into it. one hellofa building, we have much equipment there along with DOD and several other non disclosed entities. I suppose they would fall under backbone provider more then net owner :-), although i beleve if they wanted to they could shut down Latin america with a short flip of a big switch.

by ericswain

If you are wonder who is resposible for starting the "Internetting Project"?

This was done by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agencies (DARPA) in 1968 who tried interlinking different packet technologies.

The first connection was from MIT to UCLA, this was called ARPANET.

In 1990 ARPANET shuts down as the Internet Society (ISOC) is created from different government agencies from around the world to help structure how the "Internet" is routed.

In a year Prior Tim Berners Lee developed the structure language for networks to communicate over the internet. This is known as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML)

Sorry if this is a little bit of a History Lesson but in order to understand, I felt compelled to explain a little on the history.

by jiminpa

The guy that owns the internet is no doubt the one who invented it... Al Gore

:D :^0 :D :^0

by santeewelding

There was life before hyperlanguage. There still is. It's what bumps into unexplainable things while meandering in the dark.

by the scummy one

bumping your toes/shin in the dark is a bad idea.
however, bumping into unexplainable Women in the dark is another interesting tale altogether.

by rob mekel

can have a tail ([i]consequence[/i])
that you will or won't like :^0 ;)

Or did he mean is own tail :0

[i]dang emoticons @#$%^#$%@ [/i]

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