XS4ALL
Encyclopedia
XS4ALL is the third-oldest Internet service provider
(ISP) in the Netherlands
, after NLnet
and SURFnet
. However, XS4ALL was the first company to offer Internet access to individuals, since 1993. Founded in 1993 as an offshoot of the hackers
club Hack-Tic by Felipe Rodriquez, Rop Gonggrijp
, Paul Jongsma en Cor Bosman, while based in Amsterdam
, it offers dial-up access
as well as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL) services. As of 2007, XS4ALL was one of the larger ISPs in The Netherlands. In 2005, the company had a turnover of 86.1 million euro, realising a 15.4 million euro profit before taxes. Also in 2005, XS4ALL employed 327 people (325 FTE) and served 265,000 private subscribers. The company is known for its willingness to take on controversial issues; has taken legal action against spammers, and fought over other legal issues in court, such as Scientology vs. the Internet.
caused a raid on the servers of Dutch Internet provider XS4ALL as part of a bigger conflict with its online critics
and sued it and Karin Spaink
for copyright violations because of citing out of some confidential materials of Scientology. A summary judgment followed in 1995, full proceedings in 1999, an appeal in 2001 which has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Netherlands in December 2005, all in favor of the provider and Karin Spaink, putting freedom of speech above copyright in some cases.
radio
station B92
online using streaming audio technology in response to the jamming of its broadcasts by the regime of Slobodan Milošević
. XS4ALL installed a leased line to the radio station in response to a request from Adriënne van Heteren, a Dutch citizen who went to Belgrade to set up various cultural activities. After XS4ALL had launched the online broadcast of Radio B92, its signal was picked up by the Voice of America
and transmitted back into Serbia.
InternetContentTaskForce (ICTF) blocked XS4ALL for about a month because one of its subscribers had put an issue of radikal magazine on his homepage. radikal is illegal in Germany, and to prevent its publication the German Bundesanwaltschaft (prosecutor's office) ordered commercial ISPs in Germany to block its website. They ended up blocking the entire XS4ALL site, which at the time had about 6,000 personal and commercial homepages. XS4ALL insisted that the case to be settled by the courts, because it did not want to infringe on its customers' rights of free expression; however, the requests to follow traditional legal paths were ignored by the German ICTF.
On April 11, 1997, one of the largest German ISPs, the Deutsches Forschungsnetz (DFN) academic backbone network, started an IP
-filtering blockade against XS4ALL. Many protest letters were sent, mirrors were once again set up around the world, and the complete issue of radikal 154 was posted in the newsgroup
"de.soc.zensur". As a result, the blockade only lasted a few days. The founders of XS4ALL were interrogated as suspects of publication of terrorist propaganda, but no legal actions were initiated against them. XS4ALL then implemented several technologies to sabotage
the censorship attempt, such as automatically rotating the IP address of its website
. The ICTF ended up censoring all IP traffic to the XS4ALL domain, including e-mail. After a couple of weeks this became untenable; a global protest against the censorship
emerged, and a global network of mirror sites was created by the online community. The ICTF abandoned its efforts after several weeks.
. Many of the original employees, especially system managers, still work there.
XS4ALL also sponsors and hosts the sites of many free software
projects, like Python
, Squirrelmail
and Debian
. It sponsors the data traffic of ScriptumLibre, and thereby indirectly helps projects like Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure
(FFII) and the Free Software Translation Project
.
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
(ISP) in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, after NLnet
NLnet
NLnets history started in April 1982 with the announcement of a major initiative to develop and provide network services in Europe under the name EUnet.Stichting NLnet was formally established as a "stichting" in February 1989...
and SURFnet
SURFnet
SURFnet is both the name for the organisation that develops, implements and maintains the national research and education network of the Netherlands as well as the network it operates. As one of the first networks linked to the Internet outside the USA the organisation has taken the lead in the...
. However, XS4ALL was the first company to offer Internet access to individuals, since 1993. Founded in 1993 as an offshoot of the hackers
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
club Hack-Tic by Felipe Rodriquez, Rop Gonggrijp
Rop Gonggrijp
Robbert Valentijn Gonggrijp is a Dutch hacker and one of the founders of XS4ALL.- Biography :While growing up in Wormer in the Dutch Zaanstreek area, he became known as a teenage hacker and appeared as one of the main characters in Jan Jacobs's book "Kraken en Computers" which...
, Paul Jongsma en Cor Bosman, while based in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, it offers dial-up access
Dial-up access
Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network to establish a dialled connection to an Internet service provider via telephone lines...
as well as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...
(ADSL) services. As of 2007, XS4ALL was one of the larger ISPs in The Netherlands. In 2005, the company had a turnover of 86.1 million euro, realising a 15.4 million euro profit before taxes. Also in 2005, XS4ALL employed 327 people (325 FTE) and served 265,000 private subscribers. The company is known for its willingness to take on controversial issues; has taken legal action against spammers, and fought over other legal issues in court, such as Scientology vs. the Internet.
Scientology
In 1995 members of the Church of ScientologyChurch of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
caused a raid on the servers of Dutch Internet provider XS4ALL as part of a bigger conflict with its online critics
Scientology versus the Internet
"Scientology versus the Internet" refers to a number of disputes relating to the Church of Scientology's efforts to suppress material critical of Scientology on the Internet through the use of lawsuits and legal threats. In late 1994, the Church of Scientology began using various legal tactics to...
and sued it and Karin Spaink
Karin Spaink
Karin Spaink is a journalist, writer and feminist.Spaink is a free speech advocate and social critic. Some of her battles include:* New-age writers who assert all diseases are only a psychological phenomenon;...
for copyright violations because of citing out of some confidential materials of Scientology. A summary judgment followed in 1995, full proceedings in 1999, an appeal in 2001 which has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Netherlands in December 2005, all in favor of the provider and Karin Spaink, putting freedom of speech above copyright in some cases.
Station B92
In December 1996, XS4ALL put the BelgradeBelgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
station B92
B92
B92 is a radio and television broadcaster with national coverage headquartered in Belgrade, Serbia. The network's key demographic is chiefly urban and young audience. Its programs, including the news cover topics with fairly liberal political painted attitudes...
online using streaming audio technology in response to the jamming of its broadcasts by the regime of Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
. XS4ALL installed a leased line to the radio station in response to a request from Adriënne van Heteren, a Dutch citizen who went to Belgrade to set up various cultural activities. After XS4ALL had launched the online broadcast of Radio B92, its signal was picked up by the Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
and transmitted back into Serbia.
Radikal Magazine
In September 1996, members of the GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
InternetContentTaskForce (ICTF) blocked XS4ALL for about a month because one of its subscribers had put an issue of radikal magazine on his homepage. radikal is illegal in Germany, and to prevent its publication the German Bundesanwaltschaft (prosecutor's office) ordered commercial ISPs in Germany to block its website. They ended up blocking the entire XS4ALL site, which at the time had about 6,000 personal and commercial homepages. XS4ALL insisted that the case to be settled by the courts, because it did not want to infringe on its customers' rights of free expression; however, the requests to follow traditional legal paths were ignored by the German ICTF.
On April 11, 1997, one of the largest German ISPs, the Deutsches Forschungsnetz (DFN) academic backbone network, started an IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
-filtering blockade against XS4ALL. Many protest letters were sent, mirrors were once again set up around the world, and the complete issue of radikal 154 was posted in the newsgroup
Newsgroup
A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
"de.soc.zensur". As a result, the blockade only lasted a few days. The founders of XS4ALL were interrogated as suspects of publication of terrorist propaganda, but no legal actions were initiated against them. XS4ALL then implemented several technologies to sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
the censorship attempt, such as automatically rotating the IP address of its website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
. The ICTF ended up censoring all IP traffic to the XS4ALL domain, including e-mail. After a couple of weeks this became untenable; a global protest against the censorship
Internet censorship in Germany
Internet censorship in Germany is practised by law as well as the effect of some court decisions.An example of content censored by law is the removal of web sites from Google search results that deny the holocaust, which is a felony under German law....
emerged, and a global network of mirror sites was created by the online community. The ICTF abandoned its efforts after several weeks.
Corporate culture
In December 1998, XS4ALL was sold to the Dutch incumbent phone company KPNKPN
KPN is a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company, including both 2G and 3G mobile operations...
. Many of the original employees, especially system managers, still work there.
XS4ALL also sponsors and hosts the sites of many free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
projects, like Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
, Squirrelmail
SquirrelMail
SquirrelMail is an Open Source project that provides both a web-based email application and an IMAP proxy server.The webmail portion of the project was started by Nathan and Luke Ehresman in 1999 and is written in the PHP scripting language...
and Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
. It sponsors the data traffic of ScriptumLibre, and thereby indirectly helps projects like Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure
Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure or FFII is a non-profit organisation based in Munich, Germany, dedicated to establishing a free market in information technology, by the removal of barriers to competition...
(FFII) and the Free Software Translation Project
Translation Project
Founded in 2003, the Translation Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501 C 3 umbrella organization for bringing innovative Iranian-inspired , projects to audiences through literary and multimedia events....
.