igious Global Business Network), conceived
and implemented an online bulletin board called The Well (Whole Earth
'Lectronic Link). Within two years thousands of users had joined the
dial-in computer conferencing system and were sharing their deepest
hopes and fears with one another. Famous scientists, authors,
philosophers and scores of journalists flocked to the site in order to
develop their ideas collaboratively rather than alone. Meanwhile as
the internet continued to develop, online discussions in a distributed
system called USENET began to proliferate. These were absolutely
self-organising discussions about thousands of different topics. They
themselves spawned communities of scientists, activists, doctors, and
patients, among so many others, dedicated to tackling problems in
collaboration across formerly prohibitive geographical and cultural
divides.

The Backlash

These new communities are perhaps why the effects of the remote,
joystick and mouse represented such a tremendous threat to business as
usual. Studies in the mid-1990s showed that families with
internet-capable computers were watching an average of nine hours less
television per week. Even more frightening to those who depended on
the mindless passivity of consumer culture, internet enthusiasts were
sharing information, ideas and whole computer programs for free!
Software known as 'freeware' and 'shareware' gave rise to a gift
economy based on community and mutual self-interest. People were
turning to alternative news and entertainment sources, which they
didn't have to pay for. Worse, they were watching fewer commercials.
Something had to be done. And it was.

It is difficult to determine exactly how intentional each of the
mainstream media's attacks were on the development of the internet and
the culture it spawned. Certainly, the many executives of media
conglomerates who contacted my colleagues and I for advice throughout
the 1990s were both threatened by the unchecked growth of interactive
culture and anxious to cash in on these new developments. They were
chagrined by the flow of viewers away from television programming, but
they hoped this shift could be managed and ultimately exploited. While
many existing content industries, such as the music recording
industry, sought to put both individual companies and entire new
categories out of business (such as Napster and other peer-to-peer
networks), the great majority of executives did not want