[Software] upgrades will smooth into a constant process of incremental improvement and adaptation, some of it manmade and some of it arising through genetic algorithms. Pirated copies … may become too static to have much value to anyone. Even in [fixed information], the unencrypted file could still be interwoven with code which could continue to protect it … The file would be “alive” with permanently embedded software that could “sense” the surrounding conditions and interact with them … Other methods might give the file the ability to “phone home” through the Net to its original owner. The continued integrity of some files might require periodic ‘feeding’ with digital cash from their host, which they would then relay back to their authors.
Predictor: Barlow, John Perry
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 essay for Wired magazine, John Perry Barlow, a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, discusses patents and copyrights in the digital age. Barlow writes: ”As software becomes more modular and distribution moves online, it will begin to metamorphose in direct interaction with its user base. Discontinuous upgrades will smooth into a constant process of incremental improvement and adaptation, some of it manmade and some of it arising through genetic algorithms. Pirated copies of software may become too static to have much value to anyone. Even in cases such as images, where the information is expected to remain fixed, the unencrypted file could still be interwoven with code which could continue to protect it by a wide variety of means. In most of the schemes I can project, the file would be ‘alive’ with permanently embedded software that could ‘sense’ the surrounding conditions and interact with them. For example, it might contain code that could detect the process of duplication and cause it to self-destruct. Other methods might give the file the ability to ‘phone home’ through the Net to its original owner. The continued integrity of some files might require periodic ‘feeding’ with digital cash from their host, which they would then relay back to their authors.”
Biography:John Perry Barlow helped found the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1990 with WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link) members Mitch Kapor and John Gilmore in direct response to a threat to free speech. Barlow’s was one of the loudest voices in the battle to keep the Internet unfettered while still encouraging that it become a tool available to everyone. (Advocate/Voice of the People.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Copyright/Intellectual Property/Plagiarism
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: The Economy of Ideas: A Framework for Patents and Copyrights in the Digital Age (Everything You Know About Intellectual Property is Wrong)
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.03/economy.ideas_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney