[ih] Internet History

[David P. Reed]

I realize this may be an obnoxious question, but it would be interesting to 
determine when (I assume in the 1980's) the community of Internet 
architects decide that copyright was an affirmative tool in controlling who 
is allowed to know what about how designs proceeded?

In other words, when did a strategy for design discussions other than total 
transparency first get proposed and when was it taken seriously?

Unlike what seems to be happening here in the Internet community, most 
discourse in science pursues the value of complete openness, with limited 
exceptions.  Any attempts to close scientific discourse (holding closed 
meetings, refusing to share data for review, ...) are resisted by culture 
of science.

Apparently not so here.  IMO it's too bad, YMMV.  But the "new culture" 
seems to have thought it useful to have a copyright mechanism jammed right 
in the middle of the dialog, to control who can know and use various shared 
ideas.

[copyright is useful for some things, but I explicitly renounce all rights 
to limit use of this message, in whole or in part, for perpetuity].