John Perry Barlow

John Perry Barlow fascinates me because he refused to fit in one box. A Wyoming cattle rancher who wrote lyrics for the Grateful Dead, then turned around and authored A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, that combination shouldn't make sense, yet it perfectly does. He co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and his 2013 induction into the Internet Hall of Fame feels earned. What I take from his life is that the same romantic streak that wrote songs also fought for a free, open internet. He died in 2018, but the arguments he started are still very much alive.

Name (English)

John Perry Barlow

Name (Japanese)

ジョン・ペリー・バーロウ

Reading

じょん・ぺりー・ばーろう

Born

October 3, 1947 – February 7, 2018

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Boar

Origin

Cora, Wyoming, United States

Occupation

poet / songwriter / essayist / blogger / farmer

University

Wesleyan University

Awards & achievements

• 2013 Internet Hall of Fame

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://homes.eff.org/~barlow/
• Xhttps://x.com/jpbarlow
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9A%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%90%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AD%E3%82%A6

Tags

• Wyoming
• poet
• songwriter
• essayist

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.