[mattmanser]

Why don't they apply at all? They just don't apply because no-one has made them apply yet.

Years ago one could get copied tapes and access banned materials in flea markets and back rooms. It was illegal and yet people did it.

Neo-Nazis traded banned reading materials just as Christians traded illegal bibles in China.

While the internet has made the flow of information easier, it's not the case that it invented the practice which has probably gone on since the invention of speech.

All the internet has done has given us the ability to get involved in illegal practices much easier than they did before.

[tomjen3]

We wouldn't have borders if we could teleport to any place on earth. The internet is the closer to this scenario than the classical country model.

[chopsueyar]

Except is has nothing to do with physical objects, only bits and oscillating electrons.

[nitrogen]

The analogy holds because governments are trying to apply notions (such as national borders) derived from a physically-constrained world of isolation to the unconstrained, connected virtual world.

[chopsueyar]

This virtual world you speak of requires a physical medium of transfer.

Let us not forget all that physical hardware is somewhere and somebody's electrical infrastructure is powering it.

OSI - Level 1.