Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Independence & Cyberspace
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 09:27:32 -0400
From: "John F. McMullen" <johnmac () acm org> As we celebrate the independence of the American Government, it seems to me that it is a good time to consider the implications of that drive for independence upon the present attempts to govern this new wilderness which we call "Cyberspace". A good starting point for this considersation, it further seems to me, is the "Declaration of Independence" written in 1996 by John Perry Barlow and it follows these comments (Barlow should need no introduction to anyone receiving this mailing; if more background on JPB is desired, go to his Web page). Following Barlow's Declaration is a July 5, 1999 editorial by ZiffDavis' Jesse Berst (slightly edited to eliminate "Click for more"s - go to the links at the end of the editorial for more information on the points mentioned in the outline) concerning immediate threats to cyberspace freedom. These issues are real and, unfortunately, unthought of by most. To live in this world, we will have to understand it and take charge of it. Happy Independence Day! A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather. We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us nor do you possess any methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear. Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. You have neither solicited nor received ours. We did not invite you. You do not know us, nor do you know our world. Cyberspace does not lie within your borders. Do not think that you can build it, as though it were a public construction project. You cannot. It is an act of nature and it grows itself through our collective actions. You have not engaged in our great and gathering conversation, nor did you create the wealth of our marketplaces. You do not know our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society more order than could be obtained by any of your impositions. You claim there are problems among us that you need to solve. You use this claim as an excuse to invade our precincts. Many of these problems don't exist. Where there are real conflicts, where there are wrongs, we will identify them and address them by our means. We are forming our own Social Contract . This governance will arise according to the conditions of our world, not yours. Our world is different. Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live. We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth. We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity. Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are based on matter, There is no matter here. Our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion. We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonweal, our governance will emerge . Our identities may be distributed across many of your jurisdictions. The only law that all our constituent cultures would generally recognize is the Golden Rule. We hope we will be able to build our particular solutions on that basis. But we cannot accept the solutions you are attempting to impose. In the United States, you have today created a law, the Telecommunications Reform Act, which repudiates your own Constitution and insults the dreams of Jefferson, Washington, Mill, Madison, DeToqueville, and Brandeis. These dreams must now be born anew in us. You are terrified of your own children, since they are natives in a world where you will always be immigrants. Because you fear them, you entrust your bureaucracies with the parental responsibilities you are too cowardly to confront yourselves. In our world, all the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole, the global conversation of bits. We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat. In China, Germany, France, Russia, Singapore, Italy and the United States, you are trying to ward off the virus of liberty by erecting guard posts at the frontiers of Cyberspace. These may keep out the contagion for a small time, but they will not work in a world that will soon be blanketed in bit-bearing media. Your increasingly obsolete information industries would perpetuate themselves by proposing laws, in America and elsewhere, that claim to own speech itself throughout the world. These laws would declare ideas to be another industrial product, no more noble than pig iron. In our world, whatever the human mind may create can be reproduced and distributed infinitely at no cost. The global conveyance of thought no longer requires your factories to accomplish. These increasingly hostile and colonial measures place us in the same position as those previous lovers of freedom and self-determination who had to reject the authorities of distant, uninformed powers. We must declare our virtual selves immune to your sovereignty, even as we continue to consent to your rule over our bodies. We will spread ourselves across the Planet so that no one can arrest our thoughts. We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before. Davos, Switzerland February 8, 1996 **************************************************************** John Perry Barlow, Cognitive Dissident Co-Founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation Home(stead) Page: http://www.eff.org/~barlow ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- Net Freedom Under Attack http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/adem2fpf/www.anchordesk.com/story/story_3566.ht mlJesse Berst, Editorial Director Monday, July 05, 1999 First Al Gore "invented" the Internet. Now he and his kind want to control it. It's bad enough when self-serving politicians take credit for other people's work. But when they want to manipulate and milk it... that's where we need to draw the line. We are in the midst of a digital revolution that brings with it tremendous freedoms... and tremendous risks. If we are not vigilant, the Internet of tomorrow will be under the sway of politicians, bureaucrats and demagogues. In the U.S., for instance, politicians are already launching "bold" Internet initiatives in anticipation of the 2000 Presidential race. Believe me, these attempts to shanghai the Internet are not limited to any particular political party or any particular country. The threats to our digital freedom are widespread and growing: American censorship: The Child Online Protection Act was shot down by the courts earlier this year, but the U.S. government is appealing. If the government wins, the law could have far-reaching effects on legitimate Web sites, while doing little to reduce the exploitation of children. International censorship: China, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Australia have all passed legislation to "filter" content on the Internet. Internet taxes: The American moratorium on Internet taxes will expire. Recent hearings in Congress point to an Internet sales tax. Privacy: Ecommerce exposes us to increased fraud and manipulation. The government is poised to enforce standards. A good thing, in theory perhaps. But dangerous if we let the government go too far. Favoritism: On the same day U.S. House Republicans were touting their "E-Contract," the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act was introduced in the Senate. As BusinessWeek's Mike France points out, the bill gives existing corporations first rights to the best Web addresses-screwing all the startups fueling this new economy. Those are a few of the threats to our Internet independence. What can we do about them? Fortunately, we have a number of weapons on our side... including the power and influence of AnchorDesk's readership, as I explain below. The threats outlined are very real. Fortunately, there are several easy ways to help the Internet preserve its independence. Understanding the issues. You must know your enemy before you can defeat it. A good place to start is with the latest news stories and permanent links we've assembled in our Briefing Centers. Start with Net Politics: Jesse's Town Hall, then click to Privacy. Another good source is IntellectualCapital.com's Business & Technology section. Click for more. Or Policy.com's Virtual Congress pages. Click for more. Power in numbers. The Internet affords a tremendous opportunity to join forces to influence decisions. We've seen that firsthand here at AnchorDesk with our MAD petitions, Software Money-Back Guarantee, and more recently, the Privacy First campaign. I also expect Netizens to play a key role in the next U.S. Presidential election. Click for more. Plus, there are numerous organizations working to protect the Internet-and you. Turn up the volume by adding your voice: Center for Democracy and Technology Global Internet Liberty Campaign Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Electronic Frontier Foundation Truste Freedom Forum Online Internet Society Consumer protection guidelines. A move is underway to set voluntary guidelines for electronic commerce. Theoretically, this concept would give consumers the protection they need while keeping control away from red-tape bureaucrats. AnchorDesk is supporting this initiative, and we hope we can return soon to report real progress. Use the TalkBack link to recommend other ways to safeguard Net freedoms. Or join my Berst Alerts forum where a discussion is underway. READ MORE: Jesse: Power to the People - ZDNet AnchorDesk http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_3090.html How to Protect Ourselves From Electronic Invasion - ZDNet AnchorDesk http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_3216.html TalkBack Files: What Readers Are Saying - ZDNet AnchorDesk http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/adem2fpf/www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/talkback/talkba ckindex.html DOJ Appeals: What's Next for COPA? - ZDNN http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2237110,00.html Australia Senate passes Net control bill - ZDNN http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2266715,00.html GOP, Demos Woo High-Tech - ZDNN http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2281517,00.html Tax-Free Web Goods May Disappear - ZDNN http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2281815,00.html SUBSCRIBE: Get AnchorDesk's Email Summary in Your Inbox! - ZDNet AnchorDesk http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/adem2fpf/www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/whoiswe/subscri be.html DISCUSS: Jesse's Berst Alerts http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/adem2fpf/www.anchordesk.com/disgroups/disgroups _54.html TOPICS: Net Politics: Jesse's Town Hall http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/adem2fpf/www.anchordesk.com/topics/topics_357.h tml Privacy http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/adem2fpf/www.anchordesk.com/topics/topics_365.h tml "When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra "Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from others" - Pierre Abelard John F. McMullen johnmac () acm org ICQ: 4368412 Fax: (603) 288-8440 http://www.westnet.com/~observer http://www.westnet.com/~observer/Y2KCOACH.html (Y2K Site)
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- IP: Independence & Cyberspace Dave Farber (Jul 06)