Who owns the internet?

Question

Who owns the internet?
And how do internet providers get money from it.?

Answer 1

Everyone, and no one, and the ISPs.



The Internet is not a single entity. It is the collection of every single computer connected to the network. Your computer is part of the Internet too. You theoretically could host a website on it, although you don't have a URL so it would be a bit more difficult for people to find you. What happens is that when you type in a website, your computer goes and asks a special server called a Domain Name Server what the Internet address (IP address) of the computer you need to talk to is. Then, your computer sends a message to that computer.



There are a bunch of "routers" along the wires that will direct your message in the appropriate direction to get to it's destination. These lines and these routers are owned by the various ISPs. When you pay for Internet, you're paying for the ability to send your messages over these wires. ISPs have to pay for Internet too- when your traffic has to go to another ISP, your ISP has to pay them to use their wires and routers.



Since the Internet is just the connection of everybody's stuff, there's no one that really "owns" it. There are groups responsible for it, such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers that is responsible for registering website names. And there are groups like the Internet Engineering Task Force and the World Wide Web Consortium who publish documents on how the Internet works so that devices, different operating systems, and browsers can all access the same content, but that's as close as you get to someone running the Internet.

Answer 2

The question of who owns the internet is a good one. That obviously depends on how you define, “ownership”. Ownership in a literal sense would mean who has legal entitlement to the entity. Ownership defined as rights based on one’s Natural Rights to Information(NRI) would be something completely different.



When asked in a literal sense, “who owns the internet?” One would have to give a list of thirteen companies that run the very core of the internet. Those companies would be:



· VeriSign



· USC-ISI



· Cogent Communications



· University of Maryland



· NASA



· Internet Systems Consortium



· Defense Information Systems Agency



· U.S. Army Research Lab



· Autonomica



· VeriSign



· RIPE NCC



· ICANN



· WIDE Project







These companies own and operate the thirteen “Root Servers” of the internet. Those companies make the internet work.



When in reference to moral rights of the people as a global community the question is put in a different context. That context is one that determines whether or not information(in general) should be regulated or “owned”. Information belongs to the conscience and it is one’s Natural Right to be able to access information freely. One might say that the internet is simply all of the information of the world. The Internet belongs to the people of the world. If you don’t believe it, ask the people of Egypt. The internet was taken away from them just for a day, and the demanded it back(and got it). Access to this endless vein of knowledge has now become a Natural Right to every individual on the face of the Earth.

Answer 3

The websites are owned by anyone: you, me private/public companies etc. They make monies from advertisement, or products and services.



The ISP gets money directly from you to access the internet through their lines which they have paid to lay throughout the city (which they probably pay maintenance on)

Answer 4

no one owns the internet. They only own parts of a server or networks to connect to tthese servers.



Internet provides make their money form you paying them to use the internet, which is a network that they allow you to connect to to connect to millions of other servers (websites, online games, etc.) or other computers (your friends, im, etc.)

Answer 5

Lolcats, Mudkipz and Rick Astley

Answer 6

i dont know