“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.” “We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth,” Barlow wrote. Six years later, Barlow outlined his vision for the future of online communications in “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” which paints a Utopian vision for the possibility of the internet. “The Electronic Frontier Foundation grew from an effort to fight a specific legal brushfire into a full-fledged Cause much faster than we could have imagined.” Constitution to digital media,” Barlow wrote in a lengthy and fascinating piece detailing the genesis of the organization. “When we first defined the mission of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, we saw our task as assuring the application of the U.S. EFF is mourning the loss of our visionary co-founder, John Perry Barlow. The organization was founded after Barlow had a run-in with the FBI over some Macintosh ROMs. He always saw the Internet as a fundamental place of freedom, where voices long silenced can find an audience and people can connect with others regardless of physical distance.”Īfter spending much of the 1970s co-writing songs with Dead guitarist Bob Weir, the Wesleyan graduate co-founded the EFF along with digital rights activists John Gilmore and Mitch Kapor. For tech sites such as ours, however, he’ll be forever remembered as the co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation - arguably the most influential organization for internet civil liberties.ĮFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn announced Barlow’s passing at age 70 in a blog post today, noting, “It is no exaggeration to say that major parts of the Internet we all know and love today exist and thrive because of Barlow’s vision and leadership.

Political sites are mourning the death of a lifelong activist. Entertainment sites are currently lamenting the loss of a poet turned Grateful Dead lyricist. John Perry Barlow has one of those resumes that seems too surreal to possibly be true.

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