INTERNET
Judges Ease Surveillance of Web Use (NYT)
Sites Shun New Domain Names, Prefer .Com (SV)
Terrorists Leave Paperless Trail (WIRED)
JOURNALISM
Big Story Costly to Media Firms (WP)
INTERNET
JUDGES EASE SURVEILLANCE OF WEB USE
Issue: Internet
The federal courts agreed today to adopt relaxed guidelines for monitoring
the Internet use of judges and other employees, a move that could lead to
greater privacy protection for employees nationwide. The Judicial Conference
of United States Courts, a 27-judge panel led by Chief Justice William H.
Rehnquist, decided to strike language from its new Internet-use policy that
said the nation's 30,000 court employees had no right to privacy when they
sent e- mail or surfed the Web. Several judges had objected to the language
this summer. The privacy issue came to the fore when judges in the United
States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, disabled
monitoring software for a week
in May in protest.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/national/20JUDG.html)
SITES SHUN NEW DOMAIN NAMES, PREFER .COM
Issue: Internet
Many individuals, companies and groups are saying "No, thanks" to the seven
new domain-name suffixes scheduled to debut in coming months. The first to
get the pass: .info. Part of the indifference to the new
domain names is that .com is nearly synonymous with the Internet. More than
24 million names have been registered in that domain. To help relieve
overcrowding, ICANN last yearapproved seven new suffixes, the
first major additions since the domain-name system was created in the
mid-1980s. Sites ending in .info are scheduled to become active Wednesday,
followed by .biz on Oct. 1 and .name Dec. 13. "To a certain extent,
there's a bit of domain-name burnout," Jeff Harmes, an intellectual-property
lawyer in Seattle said. "The sense of urgency and shortage of domain names
eased considerably. A lot of domain names are becoming available again
because businesses that use them go out of business."
[SOURCE: Mercury Center, AUTHOR: Anick Jesdanun]
(http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/009828.htm)
TERRORIST LEAVE PAPERLESS TRAIL
Issue: Internet
As Federal agents retrace the steps of the 19 hijackers suspected in last
week's attacks, they are finding a digital trail that leads from one
Internet connection to another. According to various media reports, at least
some of them went online to plan the attacks, purchase airplane tickets and
coordinate their moves. Computer forensic experts warn, however, that the
path only appears hot in hindsight. It's a leap, they say, to conclude that
the attacks might have been prevented had laws
been in place to make Internet surveillance easier. The suspected terrorist
used Internet terminals like the one at Kinko's and public libraries.
Forensic specialist said that with the tools available to the FBI, it's
possible that the public computers might yield some clues about the
terrorists.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/technology/circuits/20INFR.html)
JOURNALISM
BIG STORY COSTLY TO MEDIA FIRMS
Issue: Journalism
Canceled ads and round-the-clock news coverage resulting from last week's
U.S. terrorist attacks will cost major media companies hundreds of millions
of dollars, say industry executives and analysts. The media
companies, already hurting from soft advertising sales, claim the attacks on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon triggered a further pullback by
advertisers on many TV networks and stations. The four major broadcast
networks, for example, went four days without an ad, the longest stretch
since President John F. Kennedy's assassination. CNN and the Fox News
Channel went without ads for six days. The networks also will take
additional losses from the cancellation of NFL games last weekend and in
January. Newspaper analyst John Morton said coverage of the attacks boosted
circulation for many daily newspapers, but the cost
of for overtime and additional newsprint cut into any revenue that might
have been made.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Fahri & Stern]
(http://www.washtech.com/news/media/12584-1.html)
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