by Mary Hale

Created on: August 22, 2010

More and more in today’s fast paced world, people are using the Internet for everything from news to phone numbers.  Most, if not all, businesses and news medias have a web presence giving information about their services, products, and even current events.  With the addition of smaller, easier to carry, devices like smart phones, PDA’s and laptops, getting information from the Internet is a common every day event.

Considering that, except for a very few exceptions, there is already a fee just to access the Internet - whether that be from a cell phone provider, an Internet service provider, or a wi-fi hot spot, most web content should be accessible without any further cost to the user.  There are some exceptions to this, of course.

For example, a web site like USA Today might offer just some of their news on the free version of their website, while also offering both a subscription to the full site, or a digital copy of their printed paper.  This is because, especially in the case of news media, they are still trying to sell a service to the public.

If all web content had a usage fee, on top of the service provider fees, it would also defeat the purpose of having a web presence.  It would be very cost prohibitive if that were the case, especially considering the state of our economy today.  Most people simply would not be able to use the Internet and access the information available there.  instead they would have to find more cost effective ways to find the information they needed, thus causing lost business and lost income for the many Internet based businesses out there today.

On the other hand, just because the information can be accessed does not mean that it should be used without permission and acknowledgement to the creator.  Even information on the Internet is intellectual property, and using it word for word without credit and permission is still plagiarism and illegal.

However, if there was a fee to access everything on the web, it would rapidly get far too expensive for both businesses and individuals to access the information they need.  Imagine for a moment, just how many web pages a person accesses in a weeks time.  Now let us pretend for a moment that each and every one of these pages had a fee just to access them and the information they contained.  It would be very easy indeed to add up hundreds of dollars worth of fees every week to simply read a news site or even a blog.  For these reasons it is imperative that web content remain, at least for the most part, free to access.

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