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RIP old Internet

[Update 020324] In February/March 2002 the free Internet was officially declared dead by the press. A website appeared shortly before that, chronicling the issue much better that this tiny page. I'll just hand you over to "The End Of Free" now.

A subject I'm a bit obsessed with. Like many I believed that the Internet could be our chance for the expression of an alternative economic system, but the old Internet is falling apart since commercialism started to moved in.

2001 was a bad year for the Internet. The following old skool sites/services/mags have either ceased to exist, got swallowed by bigger fish, are now charging for content (all or some), have reduced their free services, or made them dependent on divulging personal info and accepting tons of spam. So much for one email address for life.

  • atomz
  • bigfoot
  • blue mountain arts
  • bobby (accessibility checker)
  • digiguide
  • disinfo.net mail
  • excite deutschland, excite uk (excite.com - what's going on there?)
  • feed
  • gifs and other patented technologies
  • hotmail
  • idrive
  • imici
  • listbot
  • northern light search engine
  • robotwisdom (the grandfather of all weblogs in financial crisis)
  • safeweb
  • salon
  • slashdot
  • suck
  • star office
  • thecounter
  • thinkfree
  • ufies (you can still get the comic without subscribing)
  • yahoo
  • zeroknowledge/freedom.net

Some articles

It could lead to a cyberlibertarian's nightmare...

Evolt.org: Say Goodbye to Free Email, 23 March 2002.

Evolt.org: End of the Free Content Ride? 19 March 2002.

This whole site is dedicated to the subject: The End Of Free.

StarOffice 6.0 nicht mehr gratis, heise online, 25 February 2002 (article in german).

Yahoo to launch pay-per-search, ZDNet News, 22 January 2002.

Kevin Kelly's The Web Runs on Love, Not Greed, 9 January 2002.

Northern Light's Press release, 8 January 2002.

This Wired article sums it up nicely: 2001: A Failure Odyssey, 2 January 2002.

important message about the disinfo.net service, 14 December 2001.
... free email system, back in the heyday of the dot com boom ... due to changes in the economic climate ... we regretly must inform you that we can no longer continue to offer the free email service ...

Safeweb Turns Off Free Service, Slashdot, 19 November 2001.

ZeroKnowledge to Discontinue Anonymity Service, Slashdot, 4 October 2001.

News coverage worth the price, Salon, 1 October 2001.
Starting today Salon will begin publishing virtually all of its News and Politics articles in our Premium edition.

The free Web's over, as W3C blesses Net patent taxes, The Register, 1 October 2001.
A patent-encumbered web threatens the very freedom of intellectual debate, allowing only large companies and big media houses to present information in certain ways.

Slashdot discussion: Why Won't You Pay for Content?, 9 July 2001

Slashdot's Katz on The Demise Of The Net Magazine, Slashdot, 14 June 2001.

The Four Horsemen of Usability, Webword, 4 June 2001.
What does it mean that only 4 companies control 50% of our online time?

Gated communities on the horizon, CNET News, 4 June 2001.
...the introduction of charges may fundamentally alter the course of the medium.
Let them onto the front porch for free, then charge them for coming into the house.

A segregation of information feared, CNET News, 4 June 2001.
It's a victory of old-media values over new media

If information is power, why don't librarians rule the world?