[_ea1k]

In many respects, I feel like it already ended.

- How many companies still offer free APIs for access to their data? This used to be amazingly common. Now, even my garage door wants a paywall. - Google bragged about not selling search placement. But is what they are doing now really any different than the old keyword buying engines? - How many people still use email? And of those, how many just use gmail, effectively giving Google a near-monopoly - It used to be that MS Office competed with other office suites and there was a lot of talk pushing for long term interoperability. But all of that seemingly died with the shift to online services.

Free as in speech is in worse shape now than it was 20 years ago.