IS THE INTERNET STILL FREE?

The good and the bad about international online borders

- STORY BY EMILY BAKER-WHITE

IN THE EARLY days of the Internet, there were no borders. Any person could pay a small amount of money for a website and then publish their thoughts for all to see. There was no editorial board to review your article, no booker to invite you on TV. For a glorious, chaotic second, there were no gatekeepers. There was simply so much abundant space online that anyone could swing their fists however they liked without colliding with anyone else's nose.

But soon, the collisions came. People started using the Internet to violate one another's rights, and even commit crimes. They started ripping off, publishing and sharing others’ work without permission. A certain cohort of millennials will recall discovering pop music in the early aughts largely through Napster and LimeWire, apps where one person could upload songs, movies, games and other media that they had bought and then thousands of others could download them without paying.

The police weren't far behind. With crime came accountability.