The Netscape Fishcam sucks, in the same way that Neuromancer, Lord of the Rings, Steamboat Willy, and Tron suck. Being one of the first webcams ever, of course it will seem derivative, badly thought out, and generally 'braindead' compared to later webcams. But if not for steamboat willy, we would not have Fantasia; without Neuromancer there would be no Matrix; without Tron, we would not have Finding Nemo. Without the netscape fishcam, we would not have webcams.
The Fishcam uses the magic of client pull - Netscape invented client pull (They also invented multipart-push). The fishcam predates java, flash, realplayer, windows 95, consumer video capture devices, and access to the internet being a mainstream phenomenon. It looks derivative because all the other webcams are derived from it.
The fishcam lives at http://www.netscape.com/fishcam/fishcam.html, and if you're using netscape navigator, you can see it by pressing ctrl-alt-f. They've put in a new tank, and more fish. Rather than clean out the fish themselves, netscape have contracted out the maintainance to Sealife Aquarium Maintainance (www.sealife95.net), and the tanks are now consistently clean and the fish visible. If you cannot see the fish, try staying up late - the fish live in netscape's headquarters, California. Fish get seriously upset without a period of darkness, and if it's night time PST, you won't see the fish.
The fishcam seems to be dead - visible in the background of the last picture, dated Wedneday May 14th 2003, is an empty office.
Netscape Fishcam, 13/09/1994 - 14/05/2003. We will miss you.