A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace

"A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" is a widely distributed[when?] early paper on the incompatibility of current <a href="/facts/Government/N4bYL0VC">governments</a> with the rapidly growing <a href="/facts/Internet/Xw1rVvJU">Internet</a>. Commissioned for the online project <a href="/facts/24_Hours_in_Cyberspace/BB3Ww60e">24 Hours in Cyberspace</a>, it was written by <a href="/facts/John_Perry_Barlow/NNhh4uSE">John Perry Barlow</a>, a founder of the <a href="/facts/Electronic_Frontier_Foundation/vCy44tuo">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>, and published online on February 8, 1996, from <a href="/facts/Davos%2c_Switzerland/LK2SAtN4">Davos</a>, Switzerland. It was written primarily in response to the passing into law of the <a href="/facts/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996/GKfnXuw2">Telecommunications Act of 1996</a> in the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a>. In 2014, the Department of Records recorded and released audio and video content of Barlow reading the Declaration.

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace open-in-new

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace