WiredPen

Data on broadband penetration from the Pew Internet & American Life Project  is not as optimistic as that from Park Associates. Last week, Park Associates said 42% of US households have broadband access. Pew says that 39% of urban and suburban adults (not households) have broadband at home, compared with 24% of rural adults, for a total of 36% of all adults.

"Non-Internet users" accounted for 38% of the rural Americans interviewed and 30% of the suburban/urban adults. In rural areas, 29% connected to the Internet with dialup, compared with 21% of suburban/urban adults.

The report also says that cable and DSL "split" the broadband market share. However, access to broadband is limited in rural areas. However, the difference between rural and urban/suburban areas is not as great in the workplace as it is in the home.

Rural Internet users are less likely to make a reservation, bank online, peruse online classified ads or read a blog than their non-rural counterparts. However, rural adults  are more likely to take an online class for credit.

Methodology: "[R]espondents are categorized as ‘rural’ if they reside
in a non-metropolitan statistical area (MSA) county. Respondents are
categorized as ’suburban’ if they reside in any portion
of an MSA county that is not in a central city. Respondents are
categorized as ‘urban’ if
they reside within a central city of an MSA."

According to Park Associates, 71 percent of US households have a computer and 42% of US households have broadband access. The report says 7 percent have a computer but are not connected to the Net. THe report concludes that Internet penetration in the U.S. will increase from 63% to 64% in 2006.

Korea’s OhMyNews has received an $11-million investment from Tokyo-based Softbank in exchange for 12.95 percent of
OhmyNews’
outstanding shares, according to Red Herring.

Six-year-old OhMyNews "will
use the
investment to launch a Japanese news site, the first ’stepping stone’ of
the
soon-to-be-formed OhMyNews International." Almost 40,000 citizen
reporters write for - and are paid by - OhMyNews.

The success in Korea stands in contrast to the US, where the high-profile San Francisco project, Bayosphere, has been labeled a failure.

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Arts Technica provides an excellent overview of a 2004 case that has Google on the receiving end of a preliminary injunction over image search results. Google - and Amazon, which has also been sued - have relied on Kelly v. Arriba Soft, where the 9th Circuit Court ruled that search engine thumbnails were legal. (pdf)

Copyright holders have held the trump card in recent skirmishes. A 1709 law set copyright for 14 years. Prior to 1976, copyright was granted for 28 years and renewable for another 28 years for a total of 56 years. Then the 1976 Copyright Act boosted the term to 75 years.
The 1998 Sonny Bono Term Extension Act extended the copyright to 95 years for corporations and 70 years after death for individuals.

And then there is the Digital Millenium Copyright Act . Stay tuned.

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I’m late to the videoTunes party, I’ll admit. I poo-poohed the idea of watching “TV” on such a teeny screen until I actually held-and-watched one last fall. Guess what went on my (unfulfilled, as yet) Christmas gift list? It may even be enough to make me switch (or add) from RePlayTV to Tivo, should I ever acquire one.

In January, when I couldn’t force myself to watch all of the Sugar Bowl — since I’m convinced I jinx my alma mater (UGA) when I do — I bought the “highlights film” after-the-fact. But I watched it on my laptop.

Now iTunes has scored another scoop: NBC is premiering its new legal drama show, “Conviction,” for free on iTunes. From now until 3 March, when the show debuts on the traditional airways, you can download the show “for free.” (I’ll report later if the commercials come along with it.)

Sometimes I have hope that the networks get it. ABC seems sanguine about the fact that its official website loses out to a fan site on Google. The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart isn’t worried about BitTorrent (or bloggers posting clips). It stands in stark contrast to Warner Brothers — when it sent cease-and-dissest orders to teens in 2000 because they were violating its Harry Potter trademark.

Should do wonders for the billion song countdown - which now stands at 955,3xx,xxx and rising. [This should be used by math teachers everywhere to help students understand Just How Big a Billion Is. Or a Million.]

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OASIS, the international standards consortium, has approved Election Markup Language (EML) version 1.0 as
an OASIS Standard. "EML is designed to benefit public officials who oversee voting in
local or national elections and referendums, as well as those who
conduct private elections within corporations or other organizations.
Suppliers of electronic voting systems profit from EML by reducing
their development costs," noted Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "Of course
ultimately, it’s the voters who stand to gain the most from this
standard. The added reliability that comes from using common data
elements in a consistent manner provides more security and reduces
costs in the election process, which is a bottom-line benefit that has
the potential to touch us all."

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Resource of the Day: Digital Photography Journal. Product and book reviews, but more important (to me!) are photo tips and photoshop links.

As Apple approaches the sale of the 1-billionth song on its iTunes music store, it has launched a promotion — giving away Nanos and gift certificates to the lucky purchaser of each “100,000th” song. But the grand prize, for the 1billionth song: a 20-inch iMac, 10 60GB iPods, and a $10,000 iTunes Music Card. $10,000 in music and videos?!? Wowza! Right now, songs are selling at about 100 every five seconds — that rate can only get faster as the “clock” gets closer. It’s at 955,232,874 right now!

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