In the very early days no one understood that over half of all humans would be on the internet. It was just this ARPANet thing for the military and universities, then a few big companies.
So you got a /8 by asking for one; they handed them out for free.
Same goes for DNS. You used to request the name and it was yours. No yearly fees.
The IP blocks were never reclaimed because it was pointless. Even now clawing back the big /8 assignments only kicks the can down the road for a year, maybe two.
So you got a /8 by asking for one; they handed them out for free.
Same goes for DNS. You used to request the name and it was yours. No yearly fees.
The IP blocks were never reclaimed because it was pointless. Even now clawing back the big /8 assignments only kicks the can down the road for a year, maybe two.