it's free because the actual sponsors (the ISPs) paid for the servers and the staff volunteered their time to support the network Mr Lee coming along and secre

it's free because the actual sponsors (the ISPs) paid for the servers and the staff volunteered their time to support the network Mr Lee coming along and secretly giving christel a salary on the side would likely have had no effect on the operations of the IRC network had it not happened (bar maybe christel spending less time on IRC...)