As an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that focuses on technology, I work on the same issues that OnionShare is designed to solve. And it’s been frustrating that a simple, usable tool that fills an obvious need took until 2014 to come along. Why would that be the case?

Our work on other issues—copyright and free speech—suggests the answer. Groups like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and others that make up the copyright lobby have actively campaigned against the kinds of tools that address these aims.