Editing ARPANET (section)

== Rules and etiquette ==
Because of its government funding, certain forms of traffic were discouraged or prohibited.

Leonard Kleinrock claims to have committed the first illegal act on the Internet, having sent a request for return of his electric razor after a meeting in [[England]] in 1973. At the time, use of the ARPANET for personal reasons was unlawful.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2024-01-07 |title=TALKING HEADERS |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1996/08/04/talking-headers/41be42fa-d4ff-4c7b-9490-3ab441644886/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>''Still, tapping into the ARPANET to fetch a shaver across international lines was a bit like being a stowaway on an aircraft carrier. The ARPANET was an official federal research facility, after all, and not something to be toyed with. Kleinrock had the feeling that the stunt he'd pulled was slightly out of bounds. 'It was a thrill. I felt I was stretching the Net'.'' – {{harvnb|Hafner|Lyon|1996|loc=Chapter 7}}</ref>

In 1978, against the rules of the network, Gary Thuerk of [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] (DEC) sent out the first [[mass email]] to approximately 400 potential clients via the ARPANET. He claims that this resulted in $13 million worth of sales in DEC products, and highlighted the potential of [[email marketing]].{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

A 1982 handbook on computing at MIT's [[AI Lab]] stated regarding network etiquette:<ref>{{Cite report |last=Stacy|first=Christopher C.|date=7 September 1982|title=Getting Started Computing at the AI Lab |series=MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Working Papers |id=WP-235|hdl=1721.1/41180}}</ref>

{{blockquote|It is considered illegal to use the ARPANet for anything which is not in direct support of Government business&nbsp;... personal messages to other ARPANet subscribers (for example, to arrange a get-together or check and say a friendly hello) are generally not considered harmful&nbsp;... Sending electronic mail over the ARPANet for commercial profit or political purposes is both anti-social and illegal. By sending such messages, you can offend many people, and it is possible to get MIT in serious trouble with the Government agencies which manage the ARPANet.}}