[rohrpost] Fwd: locking up the web

[Krystian Woznicki <krystian@snafu.de>]

Assimilating the Web

Like "Star Trek's" all-powerful Borg, AOL and Microsoft are determined to
crush the spirit of online independence. Is resistance futile?

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/06/26/locking_up_the_web/index.html

"In fact, it's not hard to imagine this at all -- because it's exactly how
the commercial online world worked before 1994. The smoke of today's
AOL/Microsoft war obscures a secret agenda the two companies will never
admit to publicly: They don't like the Internet -- and never have.

Microsoft's MSN and AOL were both closed, proprietary networks when the Web
exploded and upended their business plans, forcing each to change course
radically: Microsoft turned its battleship around to sink Netscape in the
browser wars, while AOL dropped its hourly charges. Both companies hooked up
their networks to the open Net, while conniving to keep their users just a
little fuzzy about where the "branded" AOL or Microsoft turf ended and the
rest of the Net began."

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