this is a widely acknowledged fact - that the forefront of
progress, commercialism and technology on the net was driven, and
still is, by pornography, ways of delivery, and ways of paying for
it.
mp3 was pretty late - i was using mp1 and mp2 compression for music
back in the mid 90s.
the mid 90s was when the provider network, at that stage only a
couple of them were commercial [compuserve for example], was forced
to let go, forced to admit that commerce and porn were now the
drivers behind the internet and the world wide web [which itself
only came into being in 1993] and that they could no longer hold
back the reigns of.. capitalism [i guess] ..
the reigns were handed over to the commercial companies and these
now effectively run the 'net.
you still get the stall sellers peddling porn though - its just
VCD's and DVD's, and half of them were sourced via the
internet..
the old ways of getting porn over the internet before the world
wide web are still prevalent though, its just faster now, and
easier to upload.
peer to peer networks made it easier for everything to be
shared..legal and otherwise.
but at the end of the day, its still porn and that hasnt
changed.
