I'm sorry to tell you this but copyright advocates won back in 1886.

Not really, it's fairly easy to find most things on the internet without acquiring them from an official source. It's an open question of what will happen next - if "trusted computing" and the appliance model wins, then you can say goodbye to that. However, that hasn't happened yet, and computers are still open computing platforms. I certainly hope for a future where that doesn't happen.

I always think of this quote from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri when these issues come up:

"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."

--Commissioner Pravin Lal, "U.N. Declaration of Rights", Datalinks