View source for Online service provider

{{short description|Type of service provider}}
{{multiple issues|
{{unfocused|date=January 2012}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2006}}
{{Essay-like|date=April 2021}}
}}
An '''online service provider''' ('''OSP''') can, for example, be an Internet service provider, an email provider, a news provider (press), an entertainment provider (music, movies), a search engine, an [[e-commerce]] site, an online banking site, a health site, an official government site, social media, a  [[wiki]], or a [[Usenet]] newsgroup.{{Clarify|date=March 2009}} 

In its original more limited definition, it referred only to a commercial computer communication service in which paid members could dial via a computer modem the service's private computer network and access various services and information resources such as [[bulletin board system]]s, [[downloadable]] [[Computer file|files]] and [[Computer program|programs]], [[Newsgroup|news articles]], [[chat room]]s, and [[Email|electronic mail]] services. The term "online service" was also used in references to these dial-up services. The traditional dial-up online service differed from the modern [[Internet service provider]] in that they provided a large degree of content that was only accessible by those who subscribed to the online service, while ISP mostly serves to provide access to the [[Internet]] and generally provides little if any exclusive content of its own. 

In the U.S., the [[Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act]] (OCILLA) portion of the [[United States|U.S.]] [[Digital Millennium Copyright Act]] has expanded the legal definition of online service in two different ways for different portions of the law. It states in section 512(k)(1):

<blockquote>(A) As used in subsection (a), the term "service provider" means an entity offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for digital online communications, between or among points specified by a user, of material of the user's choosing, without modification to the content of the material as sent or received.<br>
(B) As used in this section, other than subsection (a), the term "service provider" means a provider of online services or network access, or the operator of facilities therefore, and includes an entity described in subparagraph (A).<ref>Cornell Law School U.S. Code collection [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/512- US CODE: Title 17, 512. Limitations on liability relating to material online].  Accessed 20 December 2006.</ref></blockquote>

These broad definitions make it possible for numerous web businesses to benefit from the OCILLA.

==History==
The first commercial online services went live in 1969. [[CompuServe]] (owned in the 1980s and 1990s by H&R Block) and [[The Source (online service)|The Source]] (for a time owned by The Reader's Digest) are considered the first major online services created to serve the market of personal computer users.  Utilizing text-based interfaces and menus, these services allowed anyone with a modem and communications software to use email, chat, news, financial and stock information, bulletin boards, special interest groups (SIGs), forums and general information. Subscribers could exchange email only with other subscribers of the same service.  (For a time a service called DASnet carried mail among several online services, and CompuServe, [[MCI Mail]], and other services experimented with X.400 protocols to exchange email until the Internet rendered these outmoded.)

Other text-based online services followed such as [[Delphi (online service)|Delphi]], [[GEnie]] and MCI Mail. The 1980s also saw the rise of independent Computer Bulletin Boards, or BBSes. (Online services are not BBSes.  An online service may contain an electronic bulletin board, but the term "BBS" is reserved for independent dialup, microcomputer-based services that are usually single-user systems.)

The commercial services used pre-existing packet-switched (X.25) data communications networks, or the services' own networks (as with CompuServe).  In either case, users dialed into local access points and were connected to remote computer centers where information and services were located.  As with telephone service, subscribers paid by the minute, with separate day-time and evening/weekend rates.

As the use of computers that supported color and graphics, such the [[Atari 8-bit computers]], [[Commodore 64]], [[TI-99/4A]], [[Apple II]], and early [[IBM PC compatible]]s, increased, online services gradually developed framed or partially graphical information displays.  Early services such as CompuServe added increasingly sophisticated graphics-based front end software to present their information, though they continued to offer text-based access for those who needed or preferred it. In 1985 [[Viewtron]], which began as a [[Videotex]] service requiring a dedicated terminal, introduced software allowing [[home computer]] owners access. Beginning in the mid-1980s graphics based online services such as [[PlayNET]], [[Prodigy (online service)|Prodigy]], and [[Quantum Link]] (aka Q-Link) were developed.  Quantum Link, which was based on Commodore-only Playnet software, later developed AppleLink Personal Edition, PC-Link (based on Tandy's DeskMate), and Promenade (for IBM), all of which (including Q-Link) were later combined as [[AOL|America Online]].

These online services presaged the web browser that would change global online life 10 years later. Before Quantum Link, Apple computer had developed its own service, called [[AppleLink]], which was mostly a support network targeted at Apple dealers and developers. Later, Apple offered the short-lived [[eWorld]], targeted at [[Mac (computer)|Mac]] consumers and based on the Mac version of the America Online software.

Beginning in 1992, the Internet, which had previously been limited to government, academic, and corporate research settings, was opened to commercial entities.  The first online service to offer Internet access was DELPHI, which had developed TCP/IP access much earlier, in connection with an environmental group that rated Internet access.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}

The explosion of popularity of the [[World Wide Web]] in 1994 accelerated the development of the Internet as an information and communication resource for consumers and businesses. The sudden availability of low- to no-cost email and appearance of free independent [[web sites]] broke the business model that had supported the rise of the early online service industry.

CompuServe, [[Byte Information Exchange|BIX]], AOL, DELPHI, and Prodigy gradually added access to Internet e-mail, [[Usenet newsgroup|Usenet newsgroups]], ftp, and to web sites. At the same time, they moved from usage-based billing to monthly subscriptions.  Similarly, companies that paid to have AOL host their information or early online stores began to develop their own web sites, putting further stress on the economics of the online industry. Only the largest services like AOL (which later acquired CompuServe, just as CompuServe acquired The Source) were able to make the transition to the Internet-centric world.

A new class of online service provider arose to provide access to the Internet, the [[internet service provider]] or ISP. Internet-only service providers like [[UUNET]], [[The Pipeline]], [[Panix (ISP)|Panix]], [[Netcom (United States)|Netcom]], [[The World (Internet service provider)|the World]], [[EarthLink]], and [[MindSpring]] provided no content of their own, concentrating their efforts on making it easy for nontechnical users to install the various software required to "get online" before consumer operating systems came internet-enabled out of the box. In contrast to the online services' multitiered per-minute or per-hour rates, many ISPs offered flat-fee, unlimited access plans. Independent companies sprang up to offer access and packages to compete with the big networks (eg, the-wire.com,<ref>{{Cite web |title=About The Wire|url=https://www.thewire.ca/company/ | access-date=2024-10-23 |website=the-wire.com |language=en}}</ref> 1994 in Toronto and bway.net<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Bway {{!}} Bway.net {{!}} NYC Internet Provider |url=https://bway.net/about-us/ |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=Bway.net |language=en}}</ref> 1995 in New York). These providers first offered access through telephone and modem, just as did the early online services providers.  By the early 2000s, these independent ISPs had largely been supplanted by high speed and broadband access through cable and phone companies, as well as wireless access.

The importance of the online services industry was vital in "paving the road" for the [[information superhighway]]. When Mosaic and Netscape were released in 1994, they had a ready audience of more than 10 million people who were able to download their first web browser through an online service. Though ISPs quickly began offering software packages with setup to their customers, this brief period gave many users their first online experience.

Two online services in particular, Prodigy and AOL, are often confused with the Internet, or the origins of the Internet. Prodigy's Chief Technical Officer said in 1999: "Eleven years ago, the [[Internet]] was just an intangible dream that Prodigy brought to life. Now it is a force to be reckoned with." Despite that statement, neither service provided the back bone for the Internet, nor did either start the Internet.

==Online service interfaces==
The first online service used a simple text-based interface in which content was largely text only and users made choices via a command prompt. This allowed just about any computer with a modem and terminal communications program the ability to access these text-based online services. CompuServe would later offer, with the advent of the Apple Macintosh and [[Microsoft Windows]]-based PCs, a [[Graphical user interface|GUI]] interface program for their service. This provided a very rudimentary GUI interface. CompuServe continued to offer text-only access for those needing it. Online services like Prodigy and AOL developed their online service around a GUI and thus unlike CompuServe's early GUI-based software, these online services provided a more robust GUI interface. Early GUI-based online service interfaces offered little in the way of detailed graphics such as photographs or pictures. Largely they were limited to simple icons and buttons and text. As modem speed increased it became more feasible to offer images and other more complicated graphics to users thus providing a nicer look to their services

==Common resources provided by online services==
Some of the resources and services online services have provided access to include message boards, chat services, electronic mail, file archives, current news and weather, online encyclopedias, airline reservations, and online games. Major online service providers like Compuserve also served as a way for software and hardware manufacturers to provide online support for their products via forums and file download areas within the online service provider's network. Prior to the advent of the web, such support had to be done either via an online service or a private [[bulletin board system]] run by the company and accessed over a direct phone line.

==Responsibility==
Depending on the jurisdiction there may be rules exempting an OSP from responsibility for content provided by users, but with a ''' notice and take down'' (NTD) obligation to remove unacceptable content as soon as it is noticed.

==See also==
* [[Videotex]]
* [[Online service provider law]]
* [[Terminal emulator]]
* [[:Category:Pre-World Wide Web online services]]
* [[Service provider]]
* [[NSFNet]]
* [[Shell account]]
* [[Connect Business Information Network]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commonscatinline|Online service providers}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050828233812/http://apple2history.org/history/ah22.html Online services history]
*[https://almada-me.com/ Information on aluminum and glass contracting services for online infrastructure]

{{Telecommunications}}
{{Industries}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Online Service Provider}}
[[Category:Computer-mediated communication]]
[[Category:Network access]]
[[Category:Online services|*Providers]]
[[Category:Pre–World Wide Web online services| ]]