[ih] Free Speech and ARPAnet?

[Miles Fidelman]

Ofer Inbar wrote:
> 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.
>

Well, sort of.  I seem to recall an awful lot of traffic RFPs and 
proposals going back and forth, and a lot of traffic involving 
"sanctioned" ARPANET users (i.e., government contractors).  I expect 
folks in various labs were placing a lot of orders w/ DEC, over the net, 
as well.  Advertising was frowned upon, more direct commercial traffic - 
particularly as email - well, that was a different story.


-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra