The Internet has had an AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) from its origins as the ARPANET, because the Internet was a government-sponsored network. The AUP was gradually relaxed because of commercial pressure. Legislation in 1992 led the National Science Foundation to allow commercial use of the NSFNET. For more details and citations I would refer you to my paper on the privatization of the Internet which is available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=260834 Rajiv Shah r-shah4@uiuc.edu http://www.RajivShah.com