Pentagon defends its spy project

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Nov 25, 2002 | by JIM BAINBRIDGE

The Pentagon is defending an anti-terrorism technology experiment that critics have likened to domestic spying on the financial transactions of ordinary citizens.

Pete Aldridge, chief of technology for the Defense Department, told The Associated Press that the project is intended to test whether new computer tools can comb through masses of information - such as credit card and bank transactions, car rentals and gun purchases - and spot clues to the planning of terrorist acts.

"This is an important research project to determine the feasibility of using certain transactions and events to discover and respond to terrorists before they act," Aldridge said in a statement designed to address criticism in newspaper editorials and elsewhere about the project's civil liberties implications.

www.darpa.mil

Parents online more than nonparents

A new study from Pew Internet & American Life indicates that parents in the United States are more likely to use the Internet than nonparents.

With almost 45 million online in the United States at present, parents account for 43 percent of all Internet users in the country. That's 70 percent of the total number of parents, compared with just 53 percent of nonparents.

The study found that parents are generally more enthusiastic than nonparents about technology and its benefits and are strong believers that their children need to master PCs and the Net in order to get ahead in life.

www.pewinternet.org

Online magazine gets inventive to survive

Fighting for survival, the online magazine Salon.com has introduced an innovative advertising program that waives subscription fees for readers willing to wade through an interactive commercial.

Salon Media Group Inc. is offering "Ultramercials" sponsored by Mercedes-Benz as an alternative to paying for premium access, which costs from $18.50 to $30 a year. About 45,000 subscribers pay fees to view 20 percent of the content on Salon's Web site. The remaining 80 percent of Salon's site remains free to all visitors.

www.salon.com

Cybersquatting case yields fine whine

Nick Gebbie of Sussex, England, registered the domain names chateaumoutonroths child.com, chateau-mouton rothschild.com, chateaumou ton-rothschild.com and cha teau-mouton-rothschild.com, figuring that he would one day be able to expect "some form of discretionary reward" from the world-famous vintner.

Baron Philippe de Rothschild disagreed - and won a landmark case in cybersquatting law when a French court ruled that Gebbie had acted in bad faith and was entitled only to reimbursement of his $75 filing fee, not the "certain number of cases of wine" he was seeking in exchange for the domain names.

www.demys.net/news/ 02_nov_19_wine.htm

E-mail Bainbridge at bainbird@gazette.com