so I'm doing a presentation for AP American History on how the internet came about and some history and current events and stuff, and i wanted to give them a brief overview of how it all worked. But i had this question thats been on my mind a while but i never cared enough to ask. Who decides who is allowed to be part of the internet and how to connect and stuff. I was reading wikipedia and it's all like "its and open community with no central regulation" to paraphrase. And it brought the question back up, why can't i just go find a wire and tap it so to speak and give my house access, why do i have to pay my ISP, and who do they pay? Who's at the top of the food chain. It said something about a collaboration of networks that mutually assented to join, is it just a bunch of networks that got together in the beginning and anyone who wants to join now has to pay to be in their club?

Man im starting my own club. Who wants to join? We'll have our own internet, and The Internet can pay to be in our club.