Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
It actually was designed to be "above the law", or at least to out-survive the law. The backbone concept was to have a communication method that would survive an all-out nuclear attack, so the remnant of the military could regroup and hopefully function. Civilian law was not expected to survive the all-out nuclear attack....
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I'd forgotten that, or missed the implications. That explains a lot of why the infrastructure of the internet is sloppy, redundant, and has a rather shotgun approach to data distribution: a key aspect was to
keep data moving, regardless of who got it or what they did with it. Torrenting caught on because it fit so beautifully with the early goals of the internet: here's some files, now everyone help us keep them available for everyone who wants them.