AOL-ers posted in the complaint area devoted just to complaints about AOL's internet access. AOL's philosophy borders on net-abuse. They went online with a Usenet software containing a bug that re-posted every message seven times, and even without that, the worldwide cost of transmitting AOL messages just to the alt.binaries.pictures. Several sites have blocked AOL access because of this. This gets into an ideological war.
Technology now allows people to freely exchange information at an amazing rate.
AOL attaches a meter to that process. In addition, aggressively pursuing new users, AOL exploits the lack of awareness of existing technological capabilities, and establishes a model that follows the traditional role of pre-packaged entertainment designed for a mass audience. Last October there were rumors that AOL even wanted to acquire their own backbone to exploit changes in internet backbone status. This has come to pass. The internet community is left to hope that as the internet and information technology evolve, the greater good will prevail.