1.  As proprietary services, they have considerable say over the kind of material available on their sites, and they require members to abide by their terms.

2.  All the on-line companies are moving to shift their proprietary services onto the Web.

3.  But even three years ago, America Online acknowledged that it could not keep instant messages limited to its proprietary online service.

4.  But the rapid growth of the Internet as a low-cost alternative for content providers to get their message out to computer users threatened all proprietary online services.

5.  But until very recently you would have paid steep charges to a proprietary service like Dialog or Datatimes.

6.  Compuserve Inc., going against the tide of the consumer on-line industry, Wednesday disclosed plans for a proprietary service aimed at families and novice computer users.

7.  Historically, the proprietary services offered the advantage of being easy to use, and the disadvantage of being slower and having a limited range of information.

8.  However, you need to subscribe to these proprietary services to use them.

9.  In the process, CKS taps the Internet, proprietary on-line services, CD-ROMs, laptop computers and interactive kiosks.

10.  Ironically, hard times for proprietary on-line services have not been a cause for celebration among others in the Internet industry.