Who owns the Internet?

While everyone's attention is fixed on Microsoft versus DOJ, the really important contest is taking place amongst the telco, telecommunications and software giants. Because most IP data travels over long-haul lines, the Internet is actually the telephone companies. Who owns the telephone companies? The Telecommunications Act of 1996 actually puts ownership of the Internet up for grabs. The paper considers how the Act has put traditional telephone companies in danger of extinction. Powerful US computer companies continue to buy up the main hardware and software lines connecting countries and continents to the emergent private Internet. Most telecom companies throughout the world have reacted too slowly to IP. Their sluggishness will be their ruin.