PART 1
Essential Internet Knowledge
Chapter 1
The Origins of the Digital Revolution
Page 8 - Protocols, the WWW, Web Pages, Links
Judicial Findings of Fact about the Internet
JUDICIAL FINDINGS OF FACT ABOUT THE INTERNET
Found below is Justice Reed's opinion [excerpted] in the case of ACLU v. Reno, 31 F. Supp. 2d 473 (E.D. Pa. 1999). Material in brackets [sample] is not original and has been added here for better overview. This case not only contains essential internet definitions, judicially fixed, but it was also a significant opinion in its own right.
[Six methods of internet communication]...
Most of these [six just listed] methods of communication can be used to transmit text, data, computer programs, sound, visual images (i.e., pictures), and moving video images....
[What are the technical protocols for internet communication?]...
When persons communicate solely via e-mail, they utilize a protocol known as SMTP (for simple mail transfer protocol). Similarly, persons may chat using the Internet Relay Chat protocol, or may post messages on "Usenet" news groups using a protocol referred to as NNTP....
Web-based chat rooms, e-mail, and newsgroups utilizing HTTP or hyper-text transfer protocol are interactive forms of communication, providing the user with the opportunity both to speak and to listen....
[What is the World Wide Web (WWW)?]...
The primary method of remote information retrieval today is the World Wide Web....
The World Wide Web, or the "Web," uses a "hypertext" formatting language called hypertext markup language (HTML), and programs that "browse" the Web can display HTML documents containing text, images, sound, animation and moving video stored in many other formats. Any HTML document can include links to other types of information or resources, so that while viewing an HTML document that, for example, describes resources available on the Internet, an individual can "click" using a computer mouse on the description of the resource and be immediately connected to the resource itself. Such "hyperlinks" allow information to be accessed and organized in very flexible ways, and allow individuals to locate and efficiently view related information even if the information is stored on numerous computers all around the world....
The World Wide Web was created to serve as the platform for a global, online store of knowledge, containing information from a diversity of sources and accessible to Internet users around the world. Although information on the Web is contained in individual computers, the fact that each of these computers is connected to the Internet through World Wide Web protocols allows all of the information to become part of a single body of knowledge....
[What are web home pages and links?]...
Many organizations now have "home pages" on the Web. These are documents that provide a set of links designed to represent the organization, and through links from the home page, guide the user directly or indirectly to information about or relevant to that organization....
Links may also take the user from the original Web site to another Web site on another computer connected to the Internet. The ability to link from one computer to another, from one document to another across the Internet regardless of its status or physical location, is what makes the Web unique....
