Introduction

Then the Internet was opened to government agencies, to schools and universities, and finally to the public. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offered access to the Internet, and the various users generated increasing amounts of traffic. This was becoming too expensive to be operated by the DoD, and therefore it was privatized. All of a sudden, the rules changed. The Internet was subject to the basic logic of demand and supply, to economic requirements. It needed to provide revenue and generate enough profit by itself to run and upgrade the network.