Well, the American tech industry as always had some big corporate players who are more than happy to sell census counting and alphabetization equipment to the third reich, and won't look too closely at what they're doing with it - so long as it's profitable and complies with local laws. So we shouldn't pretend there was some glorious golden age.

But there was a time when SV was a lot more passionate and freewheeling, and beliefs like "information wants to be free" were a lot more widely repeated.