31. The Internet is not a physical or tangible entity. It is a giant network which interconnects innumerable smaller groups of linked computer networks: a network of networks. This is best understood if one considers what a linked group of computers -- referred to here as a "network" -- is, and what it does. Small networks are now ubiquitous (and are often called "local area networks"). For example, in many United States Courthouses, computers are linked to each other for the purpose of exchanging files and messages (and to share equipment such as printers). These are networks. In the language of the Act, these networks would each be termed an "interactive computer service."

32. Some networks are "closed" networks, not linked to other computers or networks (although the Act still directly applies to such closed local area networks). Many networks, however, are connected to other networks, which are in turn connected to other networks in a manner which permits each computer in any network to communicate with computers on any other network in the system. This global web of linked networks and computers is the Internet.

33. This amalgam of computers and computer networks -- some owned by governmental and public institutions, some owned by non-profit organizations, and some privately owned -- lacks any central control or supervision. The resulting whole is a decentralized, unrestricted global medium of communications -- or "cyberspace" -- that links individuals, institutions, corporations, and governments around the world. This communications medium allows any of the literally tens of millions of people with access to the Internet to exchange ideas, research, software, poetry, images, literature, sound, or simple electronic mail with others on the Internet. These communications can occur virtually instantaneously, and can be directed either to specific individuals, to a broader group of individuals interested in a particular subject, or to the world as a whole.

34. The Internet had its origins in 1969 as an experimental project of the Advanced Research Project Agency ("ARPA"). First called ARPANET, the network linked computers and computer networks owned by the military, defense contractors, and university laboratories conducting defense-related research. The network later allowed researchers across the country to access directly and to use extremely powerful supercomputers located at a few key universities and laboratories. As it evolved far beyond its research origins in the United States to encompass universities, corporations, and individuals around the world, the ARPANET came to be called the "DARPA Internet," and finally just the "Internet."

35. From its inception, the network was designed to be a decentralized, self-maintaining series of redundant links between computers and computer networks, capable of rapidly transmitting communications without direct human involvement or control, and with the automatic ability to re-route communications if one or more individual links were damaged or otherwise unavailable. Among other goals, this redundant, self- healing system of linked computers was designed to allow vital research and communications to continue even if portions of the network were damaged.

36. To achieve this resilient nationwide (and ultimately global) communications medium, the ARPANET encouraged the creation of multiple links to and from each computer (or computer network) on the network. Thus, a computer located in Washington, D.C., might be linked (usually using dedicated telephone lines) to other computers in neighboring states or on the Eastern seaboard. Each of those computers would in turn be linked to numerous other computers, which themselves would be linked to other computers.

37. A communication sent over this redundant series of linked computers could travel any of dozens of routes to its destination. Thus, a message sent from a computer in Washington, D.C., to a computer in Palo Alto, California, might first be sent to a computer in Philadelphia, and then be forwarded to a computer in Pittsburgh, and then to Chicago, Denver, and Salt Lake City, before finally reaching Palo Alto. If the message could not travel along that path (because of military attack, simple technical malfunction, or other reason), the message would automatically (without human intervention or even knowledge) be re-routed, perhaps, from Washington, D.C. to Richmond, and then to Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, and finally to Palo Alto. This type of transmission, and re-routing, would likely occur in a matter of seconds.

38. At the same time that ARPANET was maturing (it subsequently ceased to exist), similar decentralized networks developed to link universities, research facilities, businesses, and individuals around the world. These other formal or loose networks included BITNET, CSNET, FIDONET, and USENET. Eventually, each of these networks (many of which were overlapping) were themselves linked together, allowing users of any computers linked to any one of the networks to transmit communications to users of computers on other networks. It is this series of linked networks (themselves linking computers and computer networks) that is commonly known today as the Internet.

39. No entity -- academic, corporate, governmental, or non-profit -- controls, governs, or runs the Internet. It exists and functions solely as a result of the fact that hundreds of thousands of separate operators of computers and computer networks independently decided to use a common data transfer protocol to exchange communications and information with other computers (which in turn exchange communications and information with still other computers). There is no centralized storage location, control point, or communications channel for the Internet, and it would be impossible for any single entity to regulate the information conveyed on the Internet.