85 Quotes by John Perry Barlow

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.

If all ideas have to be bought, then you have an intellectually regressive system that will assure you have a highly knowledgeable elite and an ignorant mass.

In Cyberspace, the First Amendment is a local ordinance.

I personally think intellectual property is an oxymoron. Physical objects have a completely different natural economy than intellectual goods. It's a tricky thing to try to own something that remains in your possession even after you give it to many others.

So I'm just waiting until one party or the other actually gets a moral compass and a backbone.

The Internet may well disempower the nation state, but at the same time, it also strengthens certain specific state functions - like surveillance. As a political entity, it doesn't empower the nation sate. It creates the availability of much more data than the digestive system of the nation state could possibly assimilate.

Any powerful technology has sauce for the goose and the gander... It's just an extension of humanity.

The 'Total Information Awareness' project is truly diabolical - mostly because of the legal changes which have made it possible in the first place. As a consequence of the Patriot Act, government now has access to all sorts of private and commercial databases that were previously off limits.

The Internet amplifies power in all respects. It can grossly exaggerate the power of the individual.