NELSON RESPONSE TO 'WIRED' LIBEL

[ted@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

- FEEL FREE TO RESEND OR REPOST 
UNDER YOUR OWN NAME AND INITIATIVE. -
Originally from: Ted Nelson, 28 May, 1995.


Dear friend, or person on my mailing list:

The June issue of WIRED magazine contains an extremely nasty
 and mean-spirited article entitled "The Curse of Xanadu,"
 by Gary Wolf, which purports to be the obituary of Project Xanadu. 
 (It was available earlier at the HOTWIRED Web site, where it was
 used as a come-on for inaugurating HOTWIRED's pay-per-copy
 ecash service.)  

The merely factual errors begin in the first sentence.  More
 importantly, I believe the article contains material which is
 offensive, false, damaging, and dishonest in reporting, thereby
 meeting the legal test of libel.  

The article is an affront to the alumni and veterans of the Xanadu
 project, some fifty of us over the years, contriving to make our
 endeavors look impossible and asinine; the article materially
 misstates the intentions of the project and our technical
 assertions; the article severely damages the "Xanadu" trademark,
 which (Wolf neglects to mention) has been divorced for two and a
 half years from the software he takes such pains to misrepresent
 and malign; and the article claims that my work in the 1960s and
 1970s was "absurd," based on "inability," "ignorance" and "fantasy."

WIRED magazine is a well-funded, lavish, and very successful magazine
 with connections throughout the upper reaches of the computer
 industry, so Wolf had ample resources to research these matters
 thoroughly and get them right.  But his supremely well-honed
 literary craftsmanship can leave little doubt of his malicious
 and destructive intent.

Accordingly, on behalf of my colleagues of Project Xanadu, and myself:
 I am sending out this letter to everyone in my email files;
 I will soon send a long letter to WIRED (to be available to anyone
  by automatic responsebot on June 8; for a copy, send any email to  
  libel@xxxxxxxxxx after that date);
 I will publish a list of errors in Wolf's piece, and related material,
  at http://xanadu.net/wolfsbane, opening June 8;
 I will give a talk at Xerox PARC on Tuesday, June 13, pm 730,
  entitled "What Did He Know and When Did He Know It?  Xanadu and the
  Curse of WIRED," summarizing my life's work to date, including my
  non-computer work.  This will be an official part of the evening's
  BAYCHI meeting.

I will announce my next moves in response to the WIRED article at
 a press conference at the Digital World Conference in Los Angeles
 on Wednesday June 7, pm 230.

I cordially invite you to pass this letter on to interested individuals
 or newsgroups to which you believe it has legitimate relevance (but
 please, however enthusiastically supportive of us, do not pester
 inappropriate groups or individuals with it).

Sadly yours, I look forward to the full airing of the truth and to
 the restitution of damages resulting from this article.  

Thank you.

Theodor Holm Nelson
Sapporo, Japan
Permanent address: ted@xxxxxxxxxx