{"id":1870,"date":"1999-08-01T06:48:28","date_gmt":"1999-08-01T10:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/?p=1870"},"modified":"2021-03-23T23:41:05","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T03:41:05","slug":"the-internet-works-best-without-government-regulation-by-amy-ridenour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/1999\/08\/01\/the-internet-works-best-without-government-regulation-by-amy-ridenour\/","title":{"rendered":"The Internet Works Best Without Government Regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"
“The Internet works because it is open,” said Greg Simon, co-director of America Online’s OpenNet Coalition.1<\/p>\n
The OpenNet Coalition has been lobbying Congress, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and various municipalities, asking them to force cable companies to let AOL sell Internet services over TV cable networks.<\/p>\n
But America Online recently sang a different tune after it blocked Microsoft, Yahoo! and Prodigy from sending instant messages to approximately 80 million2 users of AOL’s two instant messaging products.<\/p>\n
AOL wants open access to its competitors’ systems, while keeping access to its own network closed.<\/p>\n
The instant messaging issue became an all-out war of the nerds in late July after Microsoft released its new instant messenger software, MSN Messenger, which could communicate with AOL instant messenger users.<\/p>\n
Instant messaging allows Internet users to know when their friends and other contacts are online, and to send them short text messages. It is particularly popular with teenagers, although IBM will soon release instant messaging software allowing businesses to hold meetings over the Internet, complete with presentations, charts and slides.3<\/p>\n
AOL promptly altered its programming to isolate its users from receiving messages from MSN Messenger customers. Microsoft responded by altering its software to get around AOL’s fix, and the war was on.<\/p>\n
As software programmers competed to alternatively open and close instant messaging communications between Microsoft and AOL customers, their companies’ executives took the war to the air with dueling press releases and public statements. “Microsoft,” said AOL spokeswoman Ann Brackbill, “is essentially emulating the behavior of a hacker.”4<\/p>\n