Exploiting Elian

from TBTF for 2000-04-19

Within two weeks of the rescue at sea of Elian Gonzalez, netrepreneurs began registering domain names to capitalize on the boy's plight. Of the 40 such domains registered since that time, as of 2000-04-19 two were put to use in the way the Web intended: they marked actual Web sites advocating on one side or another of the furor over Elian's fate. One name was being used to shill for a get-paid-to-surf racket. Six domains were actively for sale -- if this exploitation doesn't technically sink to the level of cybersquatting, then it surely qualifies as shameful. The other thirty-one domain names were either parked or empty. Some of these perhaps represented an actual intention to erect a site on the Elian affair, but I'd wager most would turn out to be for sale if you inquired.

Note that two of the three the most obvious Elian-exploitation names -- elian.com and elian.net -- had been claimed a year before by a Web services company based in California.

The good guys: