shakedown_st

Hi Mr. Barlow, thanks for doing this AMA.

I'm a big fan of the Grateful Dead and was kind of shocked when I was reading a book titled Masters of Deception that there was a chapter dedicated to you. Phiber Optik and Acid Phreak of the Masters of Deception hacking group had a beef with you in 1989. Some details and quote by you at the time:

In one highly publicized incident, during a 1989 forum on computers and privacy sponsored by Harper's magazine, John Perry Barlow, a freelance journalist and lyricist for the Grateful Dead, went head to head with Mr. Abene, or Phiber Optik. Mr. Barlow called the young hacker a "punk."

According to an article by Mr. Barlow -- an account that Mr. Abene will not confirm or deny -- Mr. Abene then retaliated by "downloading" Mr. Barlow's credit history, displaying it on the computer screens of Mr. Barlow and other network users. Skirmishes Subside

"I've been in redneck bars wearing shoulder-length curls, police custody while on acid, and Harlem after midnight, but no one has ever put the spook in me quite as Phiber Optik did at that moment," Mr. Barlow wrote. "To a middle-class American, one's credit rating has become nearly identical to his freedom."

Source

It's been 24 years since that happened and I was wondering if your perspective on the event has changed at all. Or did this impact the way you saw the Internet at the time and where it was going? Any other thoughts on this?

Thanks a lot and let the four winds blow you safely home.

Haha, no rush. We understand it may take time to write out replies.