One of the biggest changes of the Internet I've noticed between now and say 2006 is how it is much more regulated online now than it was back then. For instance, we now have Paywalls for lots of news sources, blocked file sharing sites to the point now that you have to be really skilled to watch most movies and TV shows for free (though free ROMs from video games are still fairly common), as well as on certain sites like eBay, you don't find as many good deals as you once could since more people have knowledge over the value of items with better tools/apps, along with more sophisticated tools to stop "cheaters" such as shill bidders. Lastly, external sources target your online activity much more than it did where it was more of a "broadcasting" approach. Who misses this "freer, more innocent" era of the Internet?

I have a subjective perspective of the internet.
I'd say that from 1994 to 2006, the internet was 'freer' because it was new.
I especially love the 1998 to 2002 era of the internet. Felt like a more innocent time!

I miss the less restricted eBay from the early 2000's (2001-2005, maybe 2006). I lost interest in it when everything was too commercialized (late 2000's)...

I hate paywalls  >:(. I will never pay for news that is available free elsewhere, also I'm already paying enough for access to the internet plus the constant ads I am viewing, I think I'm paying enough already. I don't use eBay anymore because the fees are way too high and a total ripoff.

Our family didn't get the internet till 1997 and after the early 2000's internet usage became frequent, going online, checking emails and listening to internet music sites that have radio stations for free.

I miss it, but it was inevitable.  I'm grateful to have been part of that era - it was about a lot more than software piracy.

Facebook has spawned a new generation of people accustomed to a locked-down 'net on which most everything is done under your own name, and that cultural shift has brought us closer to David Brin's Transparent Society than anything else.  I'm not a believer in his hypothesis that it'll ultimately be a freer world, but cheap omnipressent surveillance devices could change that, and it will be a fascinating - and pretty cool - place to live if he turns out to have been right.

There was a primitive charm about the 1994 to 2002 era. Kinda like an explorer going through new and strange land.

There was a primitive charm about the 1994 to 2002 era. Kinda like an explorer going through new and strange land.


The early 2000's internet (especially after 2000) looked way more advanced than the mid-late 90's internet. I'd never consider that 8-year-period as ONE era. Internet in 2001 and 2002 (and also not really 2000) was not primitive. It's not that I would miss many things when I had to switch to 2002ish-internet in 2012. Basically because a lot of stuff was already on-line that time, unlike in 1996 for example.   

Its getting harder to find music to download for free.  On one hand this is a good thing because piracy in itself isn't good, but on the other hand its so difficult to find certain songs legally.  Many times radio edits/remixes sound better than the album version; where do you find the radio edit legally?  What if its a rap song and for some reason you need the clean version; where do you get it legally?  What about artists that release singles months before the album, do they expect people to wait for the album to come out? 

Its getting harder to find music to download for free.  On one hand this is a good thing because piracy in itself isn't good, but on the other hand its so difficult to find certain songs legally.  Many times radio edits/remixes sound better than the album version; where do you find the radio edit legally?  What if its a rap song and for some reason you need the clean version; where do you get it legally?  What about artists that release singles months before the album, do they expect people to wait for the album to come out?


Well iTunes or Amazon have good legally available selections for purchase. The best source for free legal music nowadays honestly is VEVO music videos on Youtube, most hits are there and it's 100% free and legal.

blocked file sharing sites

Some sites have been shut down by the government over it.  I recently went to megaupload.com and saw this ...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/MegaUpload_FBI-Banner.jpg