Declaration
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
Editorial introduction
Barlow contests the application of territorial state authority to online communities. He argues that those communities should develop their own norms and mechanisms for resolving conflict, and connects freedom of expression to an internet that crosses physical borders.
Read this as an influential political declaration rather than a description of legal immunity. Its optimism about self-governance offers a useful comparison with Hughes’s emphasis on building systems and May’s predictions about markets. The source dates it to the day of the US Telecommunications Act in 1996.
A question to take into the text
How should communities govern themselves when their members live across many jurisdictions?
Source & permissions
Read the source · EFF · John Perry Barlow Library ↗
The full work is not mirrored here. The introduction above is 0xNull editorial commentary, not the author’s own words.