The closest thing to "the internet" is the exchanges between the major providers - they send data back and forth to each other to connect all their customers. If they do it for free it's only because massive amounts of data go in both directions. So to connect directly to the backbone you can either pay a lot or add hundreds of thousands (actually, probably millions) of users through your connection. Plus you need to have the hardware to actually handle all that data. There's really no way to "get" without giving - any author who contests that is welcome to let me get their book without giving them anything as it might be somewhat amusing.
To try to paint a clearer picture, if you imagine a pyramid with the ordinary users at the bottom, the backbone providers in between, and the internet at the top... there is no top. Instead of going up to the top and back down to another part of the internet the companies in the middle layer just connect to each other directly. The top is completely imaginary - a simplified idea of the complex interconnections between providers - and since it doesn't physically exist you can't connect to it.
Alternately, you can create your own internet by connecting a bunch of computers to each other. Then you're the only one responsible for getting people hooked up to it.
|