[ih] AUP revision to allow commercial traffic

[John Curran]

On Dec 22, 2015, at 11:01 AM, Vint Cerf <vint at google.com> wrote:
> 
> I had permission from FNC to link MCI Mail to the Internet (via NSFNET basically) in 1988 and made the connection in summer 1989. Other commercial email providers were also given permission. So there was already some bending of AUP at the same time three commercial ISPs were in operation. 

Definitely the case - there was quite a bit of interconnection (including to commercial firms) 
prior to 1991.   For those connecting new customers to the NSFNET via the regionals, we 
were consistently told that such interconnects were supposed to be “in support of research 
and education” (even if to a commercial firm) and the typical regional Internet network 
customer service agreements required direct compliance to the NSFNET AUP.

After the NSFNET AUP was changed in 1991, there was a collective sign of relief (and we 
stopped asking prospective customers for their research/educational purpose for connecting
to the Internet...)

/John