John Gilmore

John Gilmore is an American computer science innovator, Libertarian, Internet activist, and one of the founders of Electronic Frontier Foundation. He created the alt.* hierarchy Usenet and is a major contributor to the GNU project.

Sourced

• When the X500 revolution comes, your name will be lined against the wall and shot.
  • As quoted in Peter Gutmann's X509 style guide

• The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.
  • As quoted in TIME magazine (6 December 1993)
  • Unsourced variant:

The Net treats censorship as a defect and routes around it.

• How many of you have broken no laws this month?
  • As quoted in a speech to the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy in 1991

• If you're watching everybody, you're watching nobody.
  • As quoted in Subject: [IP John Gilmore on government trustworthiness and spy gear]