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Gather round little ones and let me tell you of the Internet That Was.

Once we and the data were limited by the mediums we inhabited. We could only move ourselves from place to place by bringing all that we were with us wherever we went. We could only see that which was in front of us. We could only share that which we could hold. We were tied to countries as trees are tied to the Earth... and we could only speak to those near enough to hear.

And then the Internet came.

It set us free.

It set the data free.

Above every nation the internet flowed and to all the peoples of the world it bid welcome. Come! Sing your songs! Tell your stories! Learn whatever you wish! It all belongs to you! You have but to find it and it's yours.

In that nowhere nation, above which no flag flew, the people spoke. They spoke of everything and nothing. They spoke of themselves and their border-defined nations. They spoke of their lives and their hopes and their passions... and they spoke of their fears. They spoke of the truth.

In the web of fluttering data faint voices began to rise, voices that were once too afraid to be heard. They spoke of dark things. Evil things. Things the people had never known of but knew in their blood to be true. They shared images. They shared video. They shared their stories. And the people listened. The people learned. And the people began to move.

The People listened too. They did not like what They learned.

They never trusted the freedom the internet provided. It lived nowhere. It lived everywhere. Its armies, fickle, serious, strange, and mocking, wore a thousand disguises. It's people shared information that was never meant to cross the borders of the real world....information that was never meant to see the light of day.

This no-flag nation was a danger to all other nations. It had too much potential. It was too free. Because it had loyalty to none it was a threat to all. Such a thing could not be allowed to exist.

It had to be controlled...but how?

And then Business came. The data that flew from computer to computer and danced in space belonged to them. They had a right to it, whether it was free or locked in plastic. It was theirs. They demanded The People give it back to them. Give them back what the people had stolen. Snatch it from the sky above every earth-bound nation on the planet. They wanted it all back.

And so The People began to move.

They fought for the rights of Business. It was not fair, The People claimed, that the rights of creators be trodden upon.

No one should be allowed to share what is not theirs.

The Internet must be controlled for the Good of All.

The data that danced in the public spaces was first to be caged.

And in time the data that sang in the homes of the people was silenced as well.

But that is not enough, said The People. We must be sure all is protected from theft. We never know what might be shared. Rights may be trampled. We must ensure they are protected. That only those who own that which they send into the world are allowed to send anything at all.

And so they threw their net across the Earth and snared all the data that flew. No one knew, no one other than They, that the net They cast was meant to catch far more than stolen data.

It was meant to catch stolen Truth.

Business got what they wanted. They got what They wanted. And the people... ah... the people...

The people never forgot.