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Recent postings on internet issues from
Benton.org
August 2004
STUDY: USA ROADBAND
LEAPS PAST DIAL-UP
As of July, there were 63 million people using broadband at home, making
up 51% of the total U.S. Internet population, according to market research
company Nielsen/NetRatings. That's a 47% jump from last year, when broadband
totaled only 38% of all U.S. online households. Broadband penetration
is especially high among consumers under the age of 20, approaching 60%.
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Jim Hu]
http://news.com.com/Study%3A+Broadband+leaps+past+dial-up/2100-1034_3-5314922.html?tag=nefd.top
See also
* Reuters: U.S. Broadband Growth Slows - Analyst
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=5997952
PUBLISHING INDUSTRY TACKLES DIGITAL RIGHTS
At a trade show this week, the publishing industry is discussing digital
rights management (DRM) of electronic content. Creative Commons, a nonprofit
group, is promoting a "some rights reserved" approach to DRM.
Its approach would embed each document with metadata that tells the consumers
what level of protection the author seeks. Mike Linksvayer, chief
technology officer for Creative Commons, said the approach has several
advantages, including the ability to present multiple views of the rights
documentation--a wordy legal version, a machine-readable version and a
"regular humans" version minus the legalese. "One of the
benefits...is that people actually start to understand the intentions
the more they see the
metadata in the document," he said.
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: David Becker]
http://news.com.com/Publishing+industry+tackles+digital+rights/2100-1025_3-5315467.html?tag=nefd.top
COURT DEALS BLOW TO US ANTI-PIRATE EFFORTS
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Grokster and other online
file-sharing software companies are not liable for copyright infringement.
The court said the relief from piracy sought by the movie and music studios
would amount to an overhaul of existing copyright standards, which the
court called "unwise" and better left to the U.S. Congress.
The three-judge panel said history has proven that with new technology,
markets have a way of correcting themselves. "Thus, it is prudent
for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories
for the purpose of addressing specific market abuses," the judges
wrote in their opinion. The court ruled that file-sharing networks, like
videocassette recorders, should not be outlawed because they have substantial
legal uses, building on precedent established in the 1980s when the movie
studios fought against VCRs.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Ben Berkowitz]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=6023611
THE IMPORTANCE AND POWER OF SEARCH ENGINES
As the initial public offering of Google makes headlines, new surveys
and traffic data from Pew confirm that search engines have become an essential
and popular way for people to find information online. 1) 84% of online
Americans have used search engines - that translates into more than 107
million people. On any given day online, more than half those using the
Internet use search engines. And more than two-thirds of Internet users
say they use search engines at least a couple of times per week. 2) The
use of search engines usually ranks only second to email use as the most
popular activity online. During periods when major news stories are breaking,
the act of getting news online usually surpasses the use of search engines.
3) There is a substantial payoff as search engines improve and people
become more adept at using them. Some 87% of search engine users say they
find the information they want most of the time when they use search engines.
4) The convenience and effectiveness of the search experience solidifies
its appeal. Some 44% say that most times they search they are looking
for vital information they absolutely need. There's much more at the URL
below.
[SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project]
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Data_Memo_Searchengines.pdf
THE INTERNET AND DAILY LIFE
The vast majority of American Internet users say the Internet plays a
role in their daily routines and that the rhythm of their everyday lives
would be affected if they could no longer go online. Yet, despite its
great popularity and allure, the Internet still plays second fiddle to
old-fashioned habits. Some of the key findings in a new survey by the
Pew Internet & American Life Project: 1) 88% of online Americans say
the Internet plays a role in their daily routines. Of those, one-third
say it plays a major role, and two-thirds say it plays a minor role. The
activities they identified as most significant are communicating with
family and friends and finding a wealth of information at their fingertips,
2) 64% of Internet users say their daily routines and activities would
be affected if they could no longer use the Internet, 3) 53% of Internet
users say they do more of certain everyday activities simply because they
can do them on the Internet. The most popular are communicating with family
and friends and looking up information. Still, while nearly all Internet
users go online to conduct some of their ordinary day-to-day activities
online, most still default to the traditional offline ways of communicating,
transacting affairs, getting information and entertaining themselves.
For instance, they are more likely to do these things offline than online:
get news, play games, pay bills, send cards, look up phone numbers and
addresses, buy tickets, check sports scores, listen to music, schedule
appointments, and communicate with friends.
[SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project]
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/131/report_display.asp
BRAND ME, BABY!
B&C's cover story this week is an article on product placement in
TV shows. "It's part of the commercial takeover of every nook and
cranny of our lives and culture," says Commercial Alert Executive
Director Gary Ruskin. The watchdog group filed complaints last year with
the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission,
seeking clearer viewer notification of brand embedding. Commercial Alert
believes viewers should see an on-screen alert when placements appear
during programming. Having successfully stopped search engines from letting
advertisers pretend their pitches were search results, Mr. Ruskin says,
"We think we're on strong legal ground." He expects a ruling
by the end of the year. Placements are a remedy to advertising clutter
on TV and to viewers' use of TiVos to skip commercials.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Mark Lasswell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA446675?display=Top+of+the+Week&referral=SUPP
(requires subscription)
BROADBAND MIRACLE
[Commentary] 78% of South Korean households subscribe to broadband, the
highest penetration rate in the world and well over twice that of the
US. How did that happen? Hazlett credits deregulation in South Korea that
allowed competitors to the state telecom monopoly to invest in new broadband
networks. Unlike the US policies to encourage competition, Korea did not
allow new competitors to use the existing phone network facilities at
prices set by regulators. By using fiber-optic capacity leased from a
power company, cable TV lines, and new transmission facilities built from
scratch, competing networks emerged and broadband services took off. Korea's
deregulatory climate, Hazlett notes, has protected investments in new
infrastructure, inducing capital to flow freely into broadband.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Thomas Hazlett, a senior fellow
at
the Manhattan Institute]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109347596701001364,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
(requires subscription)
CENSORING VIOLENCE
IN USA MEDIA (August 13)
Responding to a request from Congress, the FCC will investigate violence
on TV and its impact on children. Thierer l-o-v-e-s the idea: "The
"for the children" mantra has quickly become the universal pretext
for legislative attempts to censor TV, radio, cable, video games and the
Internet. Apparently, if you have the best interests of children in mind,
you can dispense with the First Amendment and let the government censor
whatever it pleases." Instead of government intervention, Thierer
asks, "What ever happened to personal and parental responsibility
in this country?" Isn't this what those "silly" V-chips
are for, he asks. Parents need to act responsibly, Thierer writes, and
exercise their private right—indeed, responsibility—to censor
their children's eyes and ears from certain things. It's become increasingly
evident, however, that a lot of parents have just gotten lazy about carrying
out this difficult job. While I can appreciate the hassle of constantly
trying to monitor a child's viewing and listening habits, that's no excuse
for throwing in the towel and calling in the government to censor what
the rest of the world has access to.
[SOURCE: Cato Institute, AUTHOR: Adam Thierer]
http://www.cato.org/tech/tk/040810-tk.html
MEDIA'S LACK OF DIVERSITY
SKEWS NEWS JUDGEMENT (August 11)
[USA Commentary] While minorities now make up 30.9% of the nation's population,
they make up just 12.5% of the newspaper journalists nationwide. And just
one in 10 of the journalists covering the nation's capital for major newspapers
and news groups are minorities, according to a study released on the first
day of the Unity Journalists of Color convention. With minorities now
making up about a third of the nation's population, a nearly all-white
national press corps may be tone-deaf to a broad range of racial and cultural
issues that could impact the outcome of the election.
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR:DeWayne Wickham]
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040810/6438065s.htm
YOUNG MEN ARE BACK
WATCHING TV. BUT DID THEY EVER LEAVE?
Yes, yes, they have been found! Young men, 18-34, have been found. They
were right in front of the TV where we left them two years ago. They were
not off forsaking both network and cable programs in favor of video games,
DVDs and the Internet. In July, one year after the falloff was detected,
an average of 25.8 percent of men from ages 18 to 34 were watching television
at any given moment in prime time. "It kind of went right back to
where God intended it to be," the president for research for NBC,
Alan Wurtzel, said. Thanks for your prayers and support... back to our
regularly scheduled program.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/09/business/media/09ratings.html
(requires registration)
PROGRAM AIDS URBAN POOR IN ACCESSING THE INTERNET
As the nation's transformation to a wired society has accelerated, many
policymakers have shelved fears of a gulf between Internet haves and have-nots.
Internet use at all income levels has gone up. The government
program known as E-rate helped subsidize the wiring of schools and public
libraries, while recent government efforts have focused on proving broadband
to rural areas. Yet a significant digital divide based on income persists,
largely affecting the urban poor. In 2002, more than 75 percent of U.S.
households with incomes of more than $50,000 had Internet access, but
the share was 38 percent for those with household incomes of less than
$30,000, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life
Project.
There are no comparable figures for high-speed Internet access, which
typically costs $30 to $50 per month and has been embraced by an estimated
30 percent of Internet users. With such prices, some researchers worry
that it will be even harder for the poor to catch up. Home use is especially
vital, researchers say, because unlike other technologies, such as television
sets, Internet use requires computer skills and practice to take full
advantage of its power to help children learn and their parents get services
and do business more efficiently. Learn more about how One Economy Corp
is helping to bridge the gap at the
URL below.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jonathan Krim]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50706-2004Aug8.html
(requires registration)
CONSOLIDATION EQUATED
WITH APARTHEID
Speaking at the Unity conference (http://www.atunity.org/2004/thursday/index.html)
in Washington, DC, Juan Gonzalez, president of the National Association
of Hispanic Journalists, equated growing media consolidation with moving
toward a "de facto apartheid media system." He said that government
policy should be addressing diversity of ownership, not just counting
the number of media outlets, because that diversity is "critical
to insuring debate." Defending consolidation was Tom Leech of Tribune,
who argued that as an admitted consolidator, his company had started up
news operations or expanded them on the stations it had bought. He also
said that newspapers needed video for their websites to remain competitive
with new media. Teaming with TV in a market helps that effort, he said.
MIT Visiting Professor and former broadcaster Mark Lloyd told the audience
that the choice for President was also a choice for more or less media
consolidation: Republican FCC Commissioners voted to loosen media ownership
rules with Democrats fought the change.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA443290?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
HACKERS ARE DISCOVERING
A NEW FRONTIER: INTERNET TELEPHONE SERVICE
Thinking of making the switch to VoIP? Internet phones and the routers
and servers that steer and store the digitized calls are susceptible to
the bugs, viruses and worms that have plagued computer data systems for
years. Already, a few malicious attacks have shut down corporate Internet
phone networks, disrupting business at a cost of millions of dollars.
With Internet phones, hackers or disgruntled employees with access to
a company's phone server can eavesdrop on conversations by surreptitiously
installing software that can track voice packets. Worse, tapping phones
by hacking into servers and hard drives is easier than wiretapping, which
requires special equipment and more effort. Now, hackers can eavesdrop
on hundreds of calls without ever leaving home. See more at the URL below.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ken Belson]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/02/technology/02virus.html
(requires registration)
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Communications-Related Headlines are compiled, summarized and edited by
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