

The first serious infowar is now engaged - organicgrant
https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html

======
carbocation
The original title, "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace," is more
compelling. Also, note that this is from 1996.

~~~
fjarlq
Note the title used here is from a tweet by John Perry Barlow yesterday:

"The first serious infowar is now engaged. The field of battle is WikiLeaks.
You are the troops."

\-- <http://twitter.com/JPBarlow/status/10627544017534976>

~~~
carbocation
That is very helpful context; thank you for sharing.

~~~
Alex3917
Given JPB's personal history and the climate of censorship at Harvard, I'm
wondering if there will be any fallout from that tweet.

~~~
YuriNiyazov
Given JPB's record of saying what he wants when he wants and rarely seeing any
fallout, I am guessing that the answer is "no".

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ctkrohn
I love 90s techno-optimism. Pick up some old issues of Wired for this sort of
thinking. The Internet was viewed as a transformative, unstoppable force for
freedom. From an engineering point of view, we're closer to that ideal than we
ever have been in the past, but people don't have the same outlook on the
future. IMO you can date the death of 90s optimism to the NASDAQ bust and Bill
Joy's essay "Why The Future Doesn't Need Us." Both happened within a month of
each other.

~~~
ichc-werker
Bill Joy's essay: <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html>

~~~
sudont
It’s the same ideology that says progressivism is dead, despite that today’s
yellow journalism is watered down, there’s no traditional war between
organized countries, sanitation’s up, and we’re getting further along with
promoting resource equality in LDCs.

Not only that, but there’s complete ennui in living. I can go out in most
parts of the world at night without worry of being beaten, killed or enslaved;
the corner market to get fresh broccoli in winter. All of the programmers I
know want to buy a house, settle down, and work an unpleasant job in an
unfriendly country, when the internet allows any of us to pick up and move and
_still work._

Welcome to the age of pessimism and cynicism. Also, bedbugs. Just because
America is sliding doesn’t mean the world is doomed.

------
iwr
Remember the last Declaration of independence triggered a war. Don't expect
the political to consider any accessible space off-limits.

~~~
Helianthus16
remember the last Declaration was important, made by people with political
power and influence. This is merely an idealistic essay rather than an action
--it describes a movement, it does not _compel_ movement.

~~~
organicgrant
Political power and influence usually begin with an individual writing an
idealistic essay...

Thomas Jefferson, Ron Paul, Adolf Hitler, (prisoner to Chancellor in under 10
years), Barack Obama (nobody to President in under 10 years)

...I could go on, but I'll let others add names and stories

~~~
Helianthus16
This is true but does not conflict with my assertion. The Declaration of
Independence was an act of political power and influence. This is an
idealistic essay that might spur actual acts of political power and influence.

Veneration of a document must be earned.

------
citrik
Great prose, but honestly I was expecting (between wikileaks vs amazon and
comcast vs netflix) that there was going to be a dissection of the actual
infowar that is happening around us now. May we live in interesting times
indeed...

~~~
sudont
It’s really ironic that history is boring _as it’s happening._

------
thefool
The thing is, you still need some institutions to provide public goods within
each region of the earth, and these invariably have to be governments.

~~~
organicgrant
Can you be a bit clearer? I'm not seeing anything constructive yet.

Roads aren't ideas, they're hunks of concrete.

~~~
pronoiac
The Information Superhighway is just a metaphor that requires no actual
concrete.

~~~
organicgrant
I gave roads as an example of a public good.

Your Superhighway metaphor-metaphor is getting further into the ether, without
adding substance (unless you can make your statement about concrete more
concrete).

Sometimes I wish there was an 'easy button' to figure out the context of
comments.

~~~
kragen
Roads are neither non-excludable nor non-rival. So they are in no way public
goods. Therefore, they are irrelevant to the comment you were replying to by
"thefool".

~~~
organicgrant
Assuming it's not LA traffic, roads are for all intents and purposes, public
goods.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good>

~~~
kragen
The article you are pointing to does not currently cite roads as an example of
a public good, but it does give the definition I used above: non-excludable
and non-rival. I didn't edit it. Tollbooths, roadblocks, and gated communities
are a manifestation of the excludability of roads; traffic, traffic accidents
involving more than one vehicle, and potholes are manifestations of their
rivalrousness, to which we have responses such as traffic laws, road
maintenance, gasoline taxes, rearview mirrors, and seatbelts.

In short, every aspect of how we interact with roads and cars is pervasively
shaped by the rivalrous nature of roads, and their excludability profoundly
affects many social institutions. Only in the most rural areas are roads even
approximately non-excludable or non-rival.

------
tectonic
See also the excellent free, short story by Cory Doctorow that mentions this
essay: [http://baens-
universe.com/articles/when_sysadmins_ruled_the_...](http://baens-
universe.com/articles/when_sysadmins_ruled_the_earth)

------
jdp23
Great essay -- although parts of it are very 1996 :-)

The whole "past trying to rule the future" dynamic he talks about here remains
incredibly relevant. Oh yeah and this too:

"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."

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chopsueyar
I'm just glad the EFF is not considered a terrorist organization by the US
government because of this.

It does seem to condone the abolition of IP rights, though.

~~~
kragen
No, the EFF does not have a position in favor of the abolition of _any_ of the
random grab-bag of rights known as "IP rights". Some of its board members have
such positions, while others have quite contrary positions. As a result, the
organization compromises.

~~~
chopsueyar
I meant the linked-to article's author, not the EFF as an organization.

------
jhrobert
I know which side I stand.

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eplanit
It reads like it was written by a young, naive child...like a "No Girls
Allowed" sign on a tree house.

~~~
plurinshael
Or, you're reading it like a young, naive child, whose mother won't let you up
into the neighbor's tree house. One of those two.

