Friday, September 27, 2002

Two fascinating items from Benton Headlines: WHO'S ONLINE IN CHINA? China now has 45 million Internet users, the second most in the world. While that might sound a lot, it is only 3.6% of the vast population of 1.3 billion. Nearly half of China's surfers - 44% - are students or professionals, and half the country's websites are based in its three richest cities, according to official web data collector CNNIC. The growth of Internet use has received a massive boost from cuts in telephone tariffs in the last year and a half, but the deployment of broadband continues to be hindered territorial battles between competing government ministries. The market, however, is giving broadband a push, with developers building it into new apartment blocks to make them more desirable to buyers. Internet expansion is also partly being driven forward by Beijing's successful bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, when journalists and tourists are certain to put China's digital infrastructure to the test. [SOURCE: BBC, AUTHOR: Mary Hennock] http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/business/2269161.stm CELL-PHONE RATE MAPS NO LONGER REQUIRED The FCC will no longer require cellular phone companies to give customers information about their service areas. By a 3 to 1 vote, the agency concluded that the 20-year-old rule was no longer necessary because competition would prompt cell-phone companies to provide service-area information without government rules. Commissioner Michael J. Copps dissented from the decision, saying he feared that when the rule is lifted, "we face the risk that carriers with the worst service areas will try to conceal their inferiority by not making service maps available." Chris Murray of Consumers Union shared Copps' concern. "It's hard to understand how allowing companies to provide less information to consumers helps makes the market work better," he said. FCC officials noted that because the rules were initially enacted to cover cellular technology, they never applied to the newer wireless technology, such as Sprint's PCS service, yet these firms have continued to provide information about their coverage areas. [SOURCE: The Washington Post, AUTHOR: Caroline E. Mayer] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3059-2002Sep25.html 4:00:43 PM    comment []

Is TiVo Bad for Business? (Business 2.0) Personal video recorders scare advertisers, because viewers can skip ads. But the numbers suggest there may be little to fear. [This is because, according to the report, most people say they "Never" or only "Occasionally" watch the commercials anyway. (Never figures are 35% for PVR user and 31% for regular TV viewers. "Occasionally" runs 60% and 62%, respectively.)] 4:00:41 PM    comment []

Two from BNA News: LAWMAKER DEFENDS HIS ONLINE PIRACY BILL Rep. Howard L. Berman, during the first congressional hearing on his bill yesterday, defended the controversial proposal to give the entertainment industry new powers to disrupt downloads of pirated music and movies. Berman indicated he might rewrite part of the bill to more plainly outlaw hacker-style attacks by the industry on Internet users. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-959774.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7103-2002Sep26.html BILL WOULD OFFER ROYALTY RELIEF FOR WEBCASTERS A US lawmaker has introduced legislation meant to ease the transition Webcasters face as they begin making royalty payments to record companies and songwriters. Rep. James Sensenbrenner's bill creates a six-month payment moratorium that would begin on Oct. 20, giving Webcaster trade associations time to appeal the royalty rates. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,55411,00.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-959805.html 4:00:39 PM    comment []

More insight from xian: Havrilesky on the fate of all fads. Thanks to RevCow, I procrastinated for ten minutes reading an interview with Heather Havrilesky in the L.A. Weekly. She sounds remarkably sensible and I bet her novel will rock. Here is her take on viewing blogging as a trend: I think the popularity of blogging has grown an incredible amount, so there'll be articles saying it's the next big thing, and then there'll be a backlash and its popularity will shrink and instead of saying, "Oh, you have a blog? That's cool," people will say, "Oh my god, you've got a blog? That's so 2001 of you." Everything gets blown out of proportion and then summed up as a stupid trend in the end. Popularity should never be taken too seriously — the good writing and good art that come out of any given movement is all that anyone focuses on over the long haul. Heather is harder on herself on her rabbit blog: But, man, do I come across as a humorless fuck, or what? So self-serious and sullen. [Radio Free Blogistan] 7:13:37 AM    comment []

Bill could spare Webcasters from silence. Online radio companies would gain a six-month reprieve from new copyright fees under a bill introduced in Congress. Will it buy them enough time to prevent their shutdown? [CNET News.com] 7:11:36 AM    comment []

Hard drive makers weaken warranties. Maxtor, Seagate and Western Digital reduce the length of some of their hard drive warranties to lower overall costs. [CNET News.com] A one year warranty? Oh, that sounds about right to a guy who just had his hard drive go fizzle, fizzle, fizzle, fizzle, pop, pop, pop, pop. 7:07:52 AM    comment []