A biography for John Perry Barlowhasn’t been written yet.
“The one thing that I know government is good for is countervailing against monopoly. It's not great at that either, but it's the only force I know that is fairly reliable.”
“I don't know that I believe in the supernatural, but I do believe in miracles, and our time together was filled with the events of magical unlikelihood.”
“The entertainment industry is as it always has been. It's a rough bunch of people and a rough industry.”
“I had always thought that the idea of love at first sight was one of those things invented by lady novelists from the South with three names.”
“In Cyberspace, the First Amendment is a local ordinance.”
“The Internet amplifies power in all respects. It can grossly exaggerate the power of the individual.”
“I think the 'counterculture' believes that there are ways to manage being the world's most powerful country that involve creation of consensus - ruling by virtuous example rather than by force of arms.”
“There are a lot of kids out there copying and distributing movies - not because they care about seeing the movies or sharing them with their friends, but because they want to stick it to the movie business.”
“They seem to have forgotten that, and are back saying the only purpose of P2P networks is for illegal trading of owned goods. We claim part of the reason for P2P is for legal trading of what ought to be in public domain. And what is in public domain in many cases.”
“I'm still strongly opposed to antismoking laws, strongly opposed to any law that regulates personal behavior.”
“I personally think intellectual property is an oxymoron. Physical objects have a completely different natural economy than intellectual goods.”
“But groundless hope, like unconditional love, is the only kind worth having.”
“The stratosphere is my church.”
“I don't think that the movie industry is any more ready than any other part of the information industries to adapt itself to the information age. But it's going to go there one way or the other.”
“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.”
“Everyone seems to be playing well within the boundaries of his usual rule set. I have yet to hear anyone say something that seemed likely to mitigate the idiocy of this age.”
“Any powerful technology has sauce for the goose and the gander... It's just an extension of humanity.”
“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.”
“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.”