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An Internet service provider (ISP, also called
Internet access provider or IAP) is a business or organization that
offers users access to the Internet and related services. Many but not
all ISPs are telephone companies. They provide services such as Internet
transit, domain name registration and hosting, dial-up or DSL access,
leased line access and colocation.
Internet hosting services run servers, provide managed hosting, and
include the Internet connection.
ISP connection options Generally, an ISP charges a
monthly access fee to the consumer. The consumer then has access to the
Internet, although the speed at which this data is transferred varies
widely.
Internet connection speed can generally be divided into two categories:
dialup and broadband. Dialup connections require the use of a phone
line, and usually have connections of 56 kbit/s or less. Broadband
connections can be either ISDN, Broadband wireless access, Cable modem,
DSL, Fiber Optics, Satellite or Ethernet. Broadband is always on (except
ISDN that is a circuit switching technology), and varies in speed
between 64 Kb and 20 Mb per second or more.
With the increasing popularity of file sharing and downloading music and
the general demand for faster page loads, higher bandwidth connections
are becoming more popular.
Virtual ISP A Virtual ISP (vISP) re-sells to the general
public Internet access purchased from a wholesale ISP. The vISP's role
is to provide any services beyond Internet connectivity, such as e-mail,
web hosting, and technical support. The vISP must perform all
authentication and accounting functions necessary to provide access and
then bill their users for it. This model allows for larger ISPs to
increase returns on their investment into what is generally a
geographically large, high capacity network, a network which smaller
ISPs as customers of the larger ISP can use to serve customers in
locations that would previously have been unavailable to them.
History The history of Internet Service Providers is
integral to the development of the formation of the modern internet, as
well as the economic impact it had on the world. Commercial use of the
Internet began in the early 1990s, with companies like HE.Net and
MindSpring serving limited customers and connections starting in 1994.
Many started out as small companies with home made software, and server
facilities in their garages. Users would pay around $20 (£11.50) to $40
(£23) for a dial-up connection. Connection speeds ranged from 9.6 kbit/s
to 14.4 kbit/s, and connections were unreliable. At the same time,
larger companies such as CompuServe and America Online had their own
networks and proprietary software for connecting - therefore CompuServe
and AOL were separate networks from the Internet, and neither continue
to exist.
V.90 was developed in 1998, bringing download speeds up to 56 kbit/s.
Larger companies began to offer Internet services, propelling acceptance
of the Internet through advertising. Internet prices also began to
stabilize. The price for a dialup connection became $19.95 a month.
By the 2000s, the battle over broadband also began to appear. DSL, which
was over phone lines, was an option for traditional ISPs. Cable
companies also became ISPs by offering cable modem access. During the
late 90s and early 2000s these technologies were in intense competition.
Pricing, technology, and market share drove the Internet economy.
Smaller ISPs however did not have access to the cable system and DSL was
too expensive. Many small ISPs began using wireless technology to
provide broadband access. Using this wireless technology fueled the way
for wireless networks that are in common use today.
In 2000, The dot-com bust proved a serious threat to the established
ISPs. Smaller ISPs offering low-cost internet served a major challenge,
as well as an overall slump in the economy. Popularity of the Internet
was still on the rise but the companies providing the services were
finding a hard time breaking even. Many of the small ISPs still
functioned as normal as they operated on revenues and not overinflated
stocks.
As of 2006, the larger ISPs are turning a profit, often through a
combination of wireless, wired and content services, all subscription
based. One major challenge in the near future is that of free wireless
broadband access, possibly provided as a municipality.
ISP liability for third party content Internet Service
Providers are key players in the online world. As they have physical
control over the content (gatekeepers) one key issue is the question if
and to what extent they should be made responsible for third party
content. For example: should AOL be responsible for libellous content
posted by a user in one of their forums? Should the victim of that libel
be able to force AOL to take that content down?
The U.S. liability regime The U.S. approach to ISP
liability is more sporadic than systematic. The respective statutes only
regulate ISP liability in regards to their capacity as publishers and in
regards to copyrighted content.
47 U.S.C. sec 230, which immunizes ISP from liability as publishers, was
obscurely enacted as an amendment of the Communications Decency Act of
1996 (CDA). The expressed aim of the CDA was fighting pornography on the
internet. The immunisation of ISPs was seen more as a necessary
condition to enable ISPs to contribute to this task after they were
discouraged to do so in consequence of Stratton Oakmont v Prodigy.
As it turned out in the end, the CDA was ruled unconstitutional, but 47
U.S.C. sec 230 stayed in place, serving as a blanket shield from
liability for all ISPs, even those who do not monitor or that have taken
notice of the libellous content on their sites.
17 U.S.C sec 512, which was enacted as part of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998, creates a safe harbour for ISPs against
copyright liability if they subscribe to a code of practice relating to
notice, take-down and put-back. Therefore the DMCA imposes heavier
burdens on ISPs in regards to copyrighted content than the CDA does in
regards to libellous content.
Whereas the DMCA provisions concerning ISP liability are mainly seen as
a fair and balanced approach, the insulation by the CDA and its broad
application through US courts (particularly the judicial activism of the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) has often been criticised as being too
soft on ISPs and to little protective of victims. The cases Zeran v
America Online, Blumenthal v Drudge, and Carafano v. Metrosplash.com --
rulings in which the online service was not held liable for libellous
content and could not be forced to take the content down -- are often
considered as examples of undue insulation of ISPs.
The liability regime of the European Union The European
Union dealt with the problem of ISP liability in a broad and
comprehensive manner. The key norms are articles 12-15 of the Directive
2000/31/EC on certain legal aspects of information society services, in
particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (Directive on
electronic commerce) of June 8, 2000. By dealing with various activities
separately (mere conduit, caching, hosting) it aims to provide a
balanced solution. In regards to the content however the directive
follows a horizontal approach and does not distinguish between different
kinds of content. This is a major difference to the US where legislation
was drafted to tackle specific problems connected to specific content
and which led to the fragmentation of the liability regime. |
