I may be in this age group or I may have just used the same technologies around the same time period. When people say the internet is "free" it carries, typical

I may be in this age group or I may have just used the same technologies around the same time period. When people say the internet is "free" it carries, typically, one of two meanings: - Free from control. Governments are a tricky thing. You trust them until you don't; especially if your country has a history of distrust for authority. - Free as in beer. This was always more of an illusion than anything. The IRC servers you spoke of had to be networked and hosted. The services had to be developed and reworked over the years. People had to staff the network to keep it free from abuse. The networks were never free, but they also never had aims to monetize. Our friends in marketing and the people who run dubious spam businesses recognized that people are drawn to free and made a business case out of it. You can't fix people being drawn to free, but you can fix the definition of what it means to say you offer a "free" service. For instance, what Facebook and Google provide isn't free - they broker your data in exchange for nifty services. What if you had to say that, and weren't allowed to use the word free? I don't think the future lies in non-freedom, I think it lies in gatekeeping what it means to be free.