To: Hank Gilman
    Editor, Fortune Small Business

Comments on FSB April 2001 feature:
Master of his Domain

Dear Hank,

Thank you for the lovely and generous
amount of ink FSB spent on my feature.

I am actually surprised, however at the
level of sloppiness in the reporting
given the amount of time that Heather
Chaplin labored over the project.

The author's personal slanders,
attributable perhaps to an
irreconcilable clash between a
provincial/suburban sensibility: Heather
and cosmopolitan/urban culture: Paul,
serve little purpose to portray the
facts.  It's a pity that your
publication lacks a more worldly or
culturally literate staff.

There are many factual inaccuracies
throughout the article that need to be
clarified.

First, Heather wrote:

    A video artist of some importance
    in the 80's...

My art practice started in the 80's when
I graduated from Cooper Union in 1982 and
collaborated with media art's legendary
Nam June Paik, and reached its pinnacle
in the mid 90's when I put aside a
successful and award winning career in
the Arts to pursue Name.Space as an
entrepreneurial venture *to make money*
to further support my research in art
and technology.  In fact recognition of
my work reached its peak in the 90's
where my productions were featured in
important exhibitions including shows
with Gallery Legend Holly Solomon, the
prestigious Biennales of Lyon and Sao
Paulo, Germany's ZKM awarded me its
"Medienkunstpreis" and Austria bestowed
me with its "Prix Ars Electronica"
(twice).  In the US I received (and
asked for) very little public funding
for my artworks.  Most of the funding
for my work came from my personal earned
income which included some commercial
video production, teaching and lecture
fees, excellence prizes for my
artworks--mainly from European cultural
institutions--and rental fees received
from exhibiting my works.  It was the
need to generate a more robust economic
engine to support the production of mine
and other's technology art that inspired
me to create the Name.Space project.
Many in the artworld were disappointed
that I stopped producing art to work on
Name.Space.

Heather wrote:

    In 1998 he sued Network Solutions...

Fact:

pgMedia, Inc. d/b/a/ Name.Space filed an
antitrust action against NSI on March
20, 1997.
http//namespace.org/law

Heather wrote:

    In February he hopped on a plane to
    Washington, D.C., where he could be
    found handing out leaflets at a
    congressional hearing on the subject. 
    In fact, during an impromptu Q&A with
    reporters following that hearing, ICANN
    chairman Vint Cerf had to ask Garrin to
    Pipe Down.

This section is the most egregious and
fictional of all.  First, the so-called
"leaflets" were copies of my written
testimony for the record, which I
distributed to the Congressmen on the
committee, and to select journalists. 
The Q&A is customary, and not just for
"reporters".  This is when ordinary
people may interact with their
Government Representatives. It is not
exclusively for the press.  Further, at
no time did Vint Cerf ever ask me to
"pipe down". In fact it was Heather
Chaplin who asked me to be quiet,
turning off her tape recorder whenever I
spoke while she impatiently battled for
Dr. Cerf's attention in the presence of
many others including myself and
journalists from competing media.  Was this
her first time to D.C.?  My
exchange with Dr. Cerf was a reasonable
and mutual one.  If Ms. Chaplin had left
her tape rolling perhaps she would have
captured a more reliable record of the
occasion than her own imagination.

With respect to ICANN Mike Roberts'
quote:

    He has some idiosyncratic ideas about
    the domain name system and intellectual
    property rights but so far hasn't been
    able to convince anyone he's right.

My "idiosyncratic" ideas about the DNS
are that it should not have a single
point of failure or access control. 
Engineers worth their salt agree that
the single point of failure of the DNS
needs to be addressed.  Many public
interest groups have published their
views on the DNS including the CSPR
where I am a member and participant on
the DNS policy working group, ACLU, CPT,
EPIC, ACM, CDT and others.  I looked to
them for my "idiosyncratic" policy
ideas. You could also say that my
knowledge of history and of the struggle
for freedom and civil rights also
contributed to my "idiosyncratic" views.

Regarding intellectual property, Mr.
Roberts seems to believe that the Lanham
Act should supercede the US
Constitution's First Amendment. On that
he can call me whatever he wants, but I
call upholding freedom of expression and
civil rights being an American Citizen
standing for the Constitution, and not
for "corporate rule". If being a patriot
is idiosyncratic, then call me what you
may!

Sincerely,

Paul Garrin
Founder/CEO
Name.Space, Inc.
<pg@namespace.org>
http://name.space
http://namespace.org