Are you limiting your argument to software? Because it's been possible to curtail the use of non-software technology. Drugs, guns, cigarettes, drones, etc. No

Are you limiting your argument to software? Because it's been possible to curtail the use of non-software technology. Drugs, guns, cigarettes, drones, etc. Now even if you look at software, it's not clear to me that it's impossible to stop people from using certain software, as you surmise. If you look at how governments shut down dark markets or how they've taken down certain Bitcoin exchanges or how they've blacklisted certain Bitcoin (and other crypto) public addresses, all these examples show that it's possible to enforce the law even in the software space. Child pornography is another example. Internet infrastructure is very centralized, and governments have over time acquired tools to control how information flows. Information doesn't want anything. That quote is a freudian way of saying "I want information to be free".