A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace

John Perry Barlow's 1996 "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace," written in Davos, Switzerland, addresses industrial world governments and asks them to leave cyberspace alone, declaring it independent of their sovereignty. The text argues that governments have no consent from the governed in cyberspace, that their legal concepts of property, expression and identity do not apply there, and that order will instead emerge from ethics, enlightened self-interest and the commonweal. It criticizes the United States' Telecommunications Reform Act as repudiating the Constitution, and it names China, Germany, France, Russia, Singapore, Italy and the United States as places where governments are trying to block liberty through guard posts at cyberspace's frontiers.