Those were the real issues. The business issues. The ones that mattered.

Those are also issues you should keep in mind the next time someone asks IT for input on that slippery question of employee personal use of the Internet. Forget hot-button claims that it destroys productivity and demolishes bandwidth -- or, on the other side, that it's every employee's right. Figure out the real technical issues for your networks. Then factor in the politics and personal agendas that always play into these thing. Then answer.

The result won't be some simple, elegant principle. It'll likely be a kludgy statement like: "Personal Web surfing is OK with IT as long as it doesn't reduce productivity, clog the network or cause other problems. If it does any of those things, it's no longer OK."

That makes a lousy headline. But it's a pretty good rule.

Frank Hayes, Computerworld's senior news columnist, has covered IT for more than 20 years. Contact him at frank_hayes@computerworld.com.