Internet access providers, and even search sites such as Yahoo, are trying to develop similarly appealing interfaces and tool sets.
The fact that Internet access providers agreed to this deal is fascinating.
China has nine state-licensed Internet access providers (IAPs), each of which has at least one gateway pipe leading out of the country to a foreign Internet backbone.
In it the White House's former counterterrorism chief, Richard Clarke, urged a wholesale reboot of government computer systems and new security rules for electric utilities and Internet access providers.
At slight extra cost, Internet service providers could offer movies and upstart phone firms could sell Internet access and teleconferences.
In theory, competition between providers of internet access should prevent this from happening.
But the judge in the case, Wilhelm Hubbert, disagreed and said he wanted the verdict to deter other internet-access providers from doing the same.
Telecoms firms and Internet-access providers are concerned that, under some countries' laws, they would be liable for content travelling over their networks and so would have to start monitoring and filtering it.
On April 24th, another federal judge upheld a ruling in a test case that would require internet-access providers to reveal the identities of subscribers engaging in file-swapping when ordered to do so by a court.
At present only 20% of cable customers also get Internet access from their providers.
The IAPs connect internally to three Internet exchange points run by the state, and the IAPs also grant the regional Internet service providers (ISPs) access to backbone connections.
Bartees Cox, a spokesman for the consumer watchdog group Public Knowledge, says it will watching to ensure the program doesn't evolve into imposing harsher punishments by Internet providers, such as terminating a person's Internet access altogether if they are accused of being a prolific violator.
Many providers now offer free internet access with no start-up and no or low telephone costs.
Germany, Estonia, Sweden and Hungary have either passed or are contemplating laws to force internet providers to block access to gambling websites, says Gambling Compliance, a consultancy.
The High Court plans to announce in June whether internet service providers should block access to the site.
BBC: Microsoft Windows Messenger blocks The Pirate Bay links
In the UK, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) took action to the courts, obtaining a court order to force internet service providers to block access to file-sharing site The Pirate Bay.
Just this week, the English High Court ordered six of the country's Internet service providers to block access to the Swedish site The Pirate Bay on the grounds that it induced its users to infringe copyright.
Broadband internet access is becoming widely available as well and greater price competition by broadband providers will help spur even further internet adoption globally.
Dutch banks face prosecution if they transfer money to online-gambling firms abroad, and Germany, Italy and Spain are trying to get internet service-providers to block access to gambling websites.
But the FCC has attempted to strike a balance by prohibiting fixed-line internet service providers from blocking customers from access to any legal content, applications or service.
Unlike them, mobile companies are not under a regulatory obligation to offer access to their networks to third parties such as Internet service providers.
BT, one of the UK's biggest providers of hotspots has even installed wi-fi internet access in McDonald's outlets across the country.
Ministers instead called on internet service providers to encourage parents to switch on a filter to stop access to adult content.
Texas, for example, imposes a levy on home pages and double- taxes Internet service providers -- once for leasing phone lines and again for access to those same lines.
Internet service providers have asked the government to intervene over the price being set to give them access to BT's physical infrastructure.
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