[ih] The web as wind and whirlwind? (was Re: History from 1960s to 2025)

[Andrew Sullivan]

On Sat, Dec 20, 2025 at 04:25:22PM -0500, Karl Auerbach via Internet-history wrote:
>If my memory is to be trusted, I did not hear much at gatherings of IP 
>lawyers about the evolving internet or domain names until the world 
>wide web came along.  After that the floodgates of client cash to "do 
>something to protect us" began to open.)

That was my impression from the outside, too, but there is the obvious problem that the end of the AUP and so the practical era of early consumer-grade commercialization is approximately contemporaneous with the rise of the web.  So, it's hard to be sure which way the causal arrow goes.  I nevertheless (obviously) think it was the web's doing.

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at crankycanuck.ca