[ih] Commercial ISPs (Re: Some Questions over IPv4 Ownership)

[Craig Partridge]

> But when all these initial non-research-project ISPs and customers were
> starting out, how were the legal issues framed?  Maybe the old contracts
> or licenses or MOUs or whatever would shed some light.  /Jack

CSNET was initially funded as an NSF project in cooperation with DARPA with
the project requiring that CSNET be self-supporting within a certain number
of years.

CSNET had paying customers ("members") from the start -- the NSF money was
used to cover the shortfall in the initial years.

So there was a contract with NSF (actually, two contracts, because I believe
NSF contracted with UCAR and UCAR contracted operations to BBN), and an
agreement between DARPA and NSF that CSNET could attach to ARPANET and
relay traffic.

Not sure that gives any insight into IP addressing...

Thanks!

Craig

> 
> On Tue, 2010-10-12 at 16:10 -0400, Craig Partridge wrote:
> > > On 10/12/2010 15:00 EDT, Ofer Inbar wrote:
> > > > On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 08:03:49PM -0700,
> > > > jfh <jack at 3kitty.org> wrote:
> > > >> Somewhere along the line, commercial ISPs popped into being.  I'm
> > > >> not sure who was first, but my recollection is that this happened as
> > > >> spinoffs from NSFNet and/or CSNet.  Again, there must have been some
> > > >> kind of agreements between those commercial entities and a piece of
> > > >> the government, detailing the rules about ownership.  These first
> > > >> ISPs were different because they were not research collaborators.
> > > >> They were in business simply to make money selling Internet service.
> > > > 
> > > > Software Tool & Die's (aka "the World") was the first commercial
> > > > consumer ISP, and UUNET was the first commercial IP network provider -
> > > > who sold IP service to STD.
> > > 
> > > The way I remember it:
> > > 
> > > STD provided Internet services but they were not a network.
> > > 
> > > UUNET was a non-profit exchange, not a network, until 1990 (?)
> > > 
> > > PSINet was started as a network, with NYSERNet members as an instant
> > > installed base, in 1989.
> > 
> > CSNET started in 1981 with a goal of achieving profitability within a few
> > years (which it achieved).  NSFNET modeled the NSF regional networks, in
> > part, on the CSNET model.
> > 
> > Thanks!
> > 
> > Craig
> 
********************
Craig Partridge
Chief Scientist, BBN Technologies
E-mail: craig at aland.bbn.com or craig at bbn.com
Phone: +1 517 324 3425