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[description], Story, any other text you want to use. Territorial Web by: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.
The Net was supposed to dissolve anachronistic national borders and cultural boundaries. It was expected to vitiate distance - both physical and mental. It was hailed as the invention that will unify Mankind and harmonize (though not homogenize) civilizations, east and west. Yet, this was not to be. As dot.coms bombed, their more veteran and more experienced brick and mortar rivals took over the Net, transforming it in the process into a giant content delivery, marketing, supply chain management, and customer relationship management platform. This evolution all but demolished the non-local nature of the early Internet. It has also brought it into the remit of existing national laws. Moreover, governments throughout the world have become more assertive in exercising territorial jurisdiction over the hitherto ostensibly extraterritorial Net. A French court has prohibited Yahoo! from making certain content on its Web sites available to French citizens. An American court advised Yahoo! to ignore this decision. A Russian programmer was arrested by the FBI for offering a decryption software for sale in Russia (where it is perfectly legal). Governments from China to Saudi Arabia filter Web content regularly. Following the September 11 attacks, restrictive anti-terrorist legislation the world over targeted cyberspace. But the real territorialization of the Internet - the redrawing of its internal contours and the withdrawal of its libertarian foundations - is more pernicious, all-pervasive, quotidian, and surreptitiously gradual. This is not the outcome of legal revolutions and court-driven evolution. It is piecemeal, quiet, unnoticed, often inadvertent and unintended. It is an "afterthought" rather than a premeditated "plot". It happens e-tailer by e-tailer, one Web site after the other, like the spread of a virus. Consider these two - by no means exhaustive - examples. Amazon and Geocities (now, Yahoo!Geocities) are two Internet establishments, two gigantic communities of users that, between them, represent a sizable chunk of all the activity on the Internet. It has long been impossible for a non-US publisher to sell its wares (books, for instance) through Amazon or to Amazon directly. Amazon works exclusively with US publishers and distributors. To collaborate with Amazon - one of the members of a duopoly as far as B2C e-commerce goes - a non-US publisher (no matter how substantial) has to work with a US distributor and thus forgo a large portion of its revenues (payable to the distributor as commissions). Moreover, said publisher cannot even open a ZShop (Amazon's version of mom and pop store). One has to be a US resident to do so. Amazon is closed to the outside world, despite its (false) global image. It sells all over the world - but it only buys American. This discriminatory behaviour is partly profit-motivated. It is logistically easier and cheaper to deal only with US businesses. But Barnes and Noble works directly with foreign publishers and they preceded Amazon in the book business by decades. Yahoo!Geocities has lately instituted a new policy. It limits the size of downloads from the free home pages of members of its community. If the downloaded content from a given home page exceeds 3 Gb (extrapolated based on hourly usage) - the "offending" member's page is shut down for an hour. The member is then prompted to pay a monthly subscription fee for a Premium Service in order avoid a recurrence of this unfortunate event. This "marketing drive" is intended to compensate Yahoo!Geocities for a precipitous drop in online advertising revenues. The "Premium" package includes "Premium Mail". But only US citizens or residents can subscribe to it. And, you guessed it right, without the Premium Mail component, one cannot complete the subscription process. Though not stated explicitly anywhere, the Premium services are closed to the outside world and are the exclusive reserve of Americans. One can get around this virtual ethnic cleansing by providing false data while registering, but this is besides the point. The Internet is a reflection of the outside world. As economies contract, unemployment soars, personal safety vanishes, the social fabric disintegrates, and consumption slumps - countries tend to isolate themselves politically, react aggressively, and protect their national economies. Protectionism, unilateralism, and isolationism are scourges the Internet was supposed to be immune to. Little did we know.
satellite television service
Internet Shopping for satellite television serviceInternet shopping enables us to access many satellite television service stores and view their offerings from the comfort of our own home. One of the biggest misconceptions about shopping on the Internet for satellite television service is that it is unsafe and insecure, this is far from the truth. Even if your credit card number is stolen and used to make unauthorized purchases you are not responsible and most credit card companies insure satellite television service purchases with fraud protection insurance, at no additional cost to you. It is a hassle if your card number is ever stolen but in all actuality you have more of a chance having your card number stolen at a real satellite television service store than on the Internet. Below are several steps you can take to help ensure safe and secure lg satellite television serviceping. It's always good to be familiar with the reputation of any satellite television service company you're dealing with. To find out more about a company most satellite television service websites have an ABOUT US section which will tell a little about the organization. Government agencies also monitor the activities of lg satellite television service to ensure that the goods and services they provide are acceptable to consumers. When you decide to purchase satellite television service online check out the CONTACT US section of the satellite television service website to ensure that you can actually contact them by phone, fax or email. Reputable firms will most certainly carry this information. It also pays to check out their returns policy. Many satellite television service websites offer a no obligation period with a guarantee of full refund of the purchase price if you return the goods in a satisfactory condition. Internet shopping for satellite television service is rapidly growing and this means high competition between sites selling and marketing satellite television service goods or services. This competition is good for you because it means everyone selling satellite television service has to operate their business to high ethical and professional standards. Real Time Media On The Net Index
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