Richard Bennett
Sep 4, 2018 · 1 min read

Here we have yet another comment on the “original vision of the Internet” that revises historical realities in order to advance an agenda. The Original Internet was not an open system: it was confined to a small community of computer science researchers and military contractors. Its design reflected the goal of interconnecting a number of privately-owned networks so that members of the community could share information they chose to share with others on the terms of their choosing.

It included means of sharing files with everyone (anonymous ftp) as well as means of sharing with individuals and smaller groups via authenticated ftp. It included means of broadcasting email to everyone, to lists of authenticated users, and with single individuals.

The idea that the Internet is all about the indiscriminate sharing of other people’s information with the most profitable targets in order to maximize advertising revenues against the will of the creators of the information is actually a new and more perverse use of the Internet. This new normal is the target of Article 13.

Nobody on the Original Internet was truly anonymous, and nobody was permitted to use the Internet for unlawful purposes. You can look that up in Wikipedia if you want.

    Richard Bennett

    Written by

    Founder of High Tech Forum, engineering consultant, and former Visiting Fellow at American Enterprise Institute.