[ih] Free Speech and ARPAnet?

[Ofer Inbar]

I got on the Internet when Brandeis University got its connection in
January 1990, and a few things I remember about those first few years:

* People spoke of "the net" in a broad way a lot, with the actual
  Internet being just a part.  Usenet was a big deal, and we also had
  CSnet (for email) and BITNET (for email, chat, file transfers).

* There was this idea that the Internet - the TCP/IP net - was for
  research purposes, but that seemed to be mostly teasing by then.
  Everyone was using the net for fun and personal interest too, and
  would joke about how what they were doing was related to research.

* However, there was one thing people did mostly seem to abide by,
  which was no commercial use.  That was sort of a speech restriction.
  People did test the line on that IIRC, but there was enough peer
  pressure to make commercial speech effectively restricted, even if
  not completely.

  -- Cos