Files that possess the independent ability to communicate upstream sound uncomfortably like the Morris Internet Worm. “Live” files do have a certain viral quality. And serious privacy issues would arise if everyone’s computer were packed with digital spies. The point is that cryptography will enable protection technologies that will develop rapidly in the obsessive competition that has always existed between lock-makers and lock-breakers.
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: ”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 … Files that possess the independent ability to communicate upstream sound uncomfortably like the Morris Internet Worm. ‘Live’ files do have a certain viral quality. And serious privacy issues would arise if everyone’s computer were packed with digital spies. The point is that cryptography will enable protection technologies that will develop rapidly in the obsessive competition that has always existed between lock-makers and lock-breakers.”
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