Well...that's quite a revisionist history. The internet was conceived as a DARPA concept of reliable government communications in the face of unreliable transp

Well...that's quite a revisionist history. The internet was conceived as a DARPA concept of reliable government communications in the face of unreliable transport, among many other research interests. For most of its early existence (through at least the NSFnet incarnation in the US), it was the private preserve of academic, government and military users, along with some of the corporations that supported them and commercial use beyond supporting projects was prohibited (e.g. you couldn't use it for advertising). It was far from a 'Democratic haven'. There were epic flamewars over 'do we let any more commercial content in our private backyard?' and 'why would we let regular people in?'. However, a pervasive dip in technological literacy... Right...it's bad we let the proles into utopia. So much for 'democratic havens'. If you can't get the basic background right, it really damages the credibility of the rest of the screed (which I mostly agree with).