I pay for my internet connection and I expect others who make use of the same network to follow its protocols. I expect HTTP to work as HTTP. If a bad network node chooses to circumvent how it works and I find a way around their circumvention then I should not be punished. On the other hand, if I republish and break copyright it is an entirely different matter.

> There’s also a social contract about respect for the law.

Which law, and as it applies in which context?

In practice, American legislators have to raise large amounts of money just to say in office. So it's unsurprising that they listen mainly to the concerns of people with money: https://www.vox.com/2014/4/18/5624310/martin-gilens-testing-...

We are in an age where information distribution is approximately free. And where the costs of producing information-based products has declined drastically. Paywalls are not any sort of law; they're an attempt by information producers to have their cake and eat it too. They want the abundance of the new, computer-driven world. But they want artificial scarcity, so that they can charge like they did in 1970. My sympathy is with journalists here. But that doesn't mean I have to roll over and let them break the web.

The laws in question here, the DMCA and the CFAA, are both too new and too old to be reflexively bowed to with "OMG spirit of the law!" Too new because they are obviously part of society's attempts to deal with technology, and are equally obviously driven by the interests of people who have piles of money and are trying to protect those piles. And too old because both, but especially the CFAA which was written in 1984, reflect a very early understanding of what computers are, what they're for, and how society should treat them.

As far as I'm concerned, this is an ongoing negotiation. We need to find ways for journalists to get paid. We need to find ways to have a much more informed populace. We need to preserve as much as possible of the freedom computers and networks have given to every individual.

If we want paywalls to be a part of law, then we should have a national debate about whether publishers deserve a special protection so they make all of their content available, let it be downloaded to any computer in the world, and then have that computer enforce any restrictions they think are good ones. We are not obliged to just concede that debate right at the beginning just because you think reading an infinitely replicable article already on your computer is exactly the same thing as stealing a unique piece of fruit from a blind man's store.

Exactly. 99% arguments here are essentially the equivalent to "since Marriott/SPG are horrible at cyber security, I am ENTITLED to use stolen credit cards from their leaks."