Pay up, or you're blocked: Indian ISPs tell US megasites
By Andrew Orlowski in London
Posted: 30/07/2002 at 15:48 GMT
America's biggest content providers could face a toll to enter India cyberspace, if plans mooted by the Indian ISP trade association bear fruit.
Although the Internet Service Providers Association of India is split on the issue, several of the larger ISPs want to block access to eBay, MSN or Yahoo! unless the prociders pay a toll.
"In order to increase revenue streams …we should ask [the portals] to pay if they want traffic on their sites from India," reports the Hindustani Times.
Traditional bricks and mortar producers have to sweeten the distribution channels, so why not MSN? And with foreign steel companies now paying an additional tariff to enter the US market, isn't this a simple reciprocation?
Indian netizens faced with the ban would have to resort to cunning methods to circumvent the block. With ISPs doing the barring, access to proxy servers could be difficult. Perhaps this provides an unexpected spur for the splendid Peek-A-Booty browser, designed to circumvent government censorship. ®
