COPYCENSE

"Spending on local online advertising will total approximately $3.9 billion in 2005, a 46 percent increase over the $2.7 billion 2004 total, according to research conducted by Borrell Associates on 210 U.S. media markets.

"Those growth figures are roughly double what researchers expected to measure for online local in 2005, said Gordon Borrell, president and chief executive of the Portsmouth, Virginia-based company. (The company measured a 28.7 percent increase in local ad spending online in 2004.)

"The fastest growing market in the country is Washington, D.C., which will increase its total local online ad spend by almost 70 percent, to reach $92 million in 2005, the report said."

Rob McGann. Report: Local Online Ad Spend to Rise 46 Percent in ’05. ClickZNews. Jan. 27, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Who owns the words you’re reading right now? if you’re holding a copy of Bookforum in your hands, the law permits you to lend or sell it to whomever you like. If you’re reading this article on the Internet, you are allowed to link to it, but are prohibited from duplicating it on your web site or chat room without permission.

"You are free to make copies of it for teaching purposes, but aren’t allowed to sell those copies to your students without permission. A critic who misrepresents my ideas or uses some of my words to attack me in an article of his own is well within his rights to do so.

"But were I to fashion these pages into a work of collage art and sell it, my customer would be breaking the law if he altered it. Furthermore, were I to set these words to music, I’d receive royalties when it was played on the radio; the band performing it, however, would get nothing. In the end, the copyright to these words belongs to me, and I’ve given Bookforum the right to publish them. But even my ownership is limited."

Robert S. Boynton. Righting Copyright. Bookforum. Feb./March. 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"An influential congressional committee has dropped a political bombshell by suggesting that a tax originally created to pay for the Spanish American War could be extended to all Internet and data connections this year.

"The committee, deeply involved in writing U.S. tax laws, unexpectedly said in a report (.pdf) Thursday that the 3 percent telecommunications tax could be revised to cover ‘all data communications services to end users,’ including broadband; dial-up; fiber; cable modems; cellular; and DSL, or digital subscriber line, links.

"Currently, the 3 percent excise tax applies only to traditional telephone service. But because of technological convergence and the dropping popularity of landlines, the Joint Committee on Taxation concluded in its review of tax law reforms that it might make sense to extend the 100-year old levy to new technologies. The committee did not take a position on whether Congress should approve such an extension and simply listed it as an ‘option.’"

Declan McCullagh. Congress Proposes Tax on all Net, Data Connections. News.com. Jan. 28, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Yahoo has set up stakes in Southern California, forming a media group to house various entertainment properties and to court Hollywood, according to an internal company document.

"According to the e-mail, Yahoo has asked numerous employees from its Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters and New York office to join an already established team in the Los Angeles area. The move reinforces Yahoo’s ambitions to be an Internet entertainment powerhouse."

Stefanie Olsen. Yahoo! Heads for Hollywood. News.com. Jan. 25, 2004.

See also:
Chris Gaither. Yahoo Seeks Spotlight in Hollywood. LA Times. Feb. 8, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"A Goldman Sachs report says online ads are becoming a ‘permanent component’ of major ad campaigns — a distressing development for older media. "The online market could have phenomenal growth doing nothing more than taking revenue from newspapers and TV," says Royal Farros, CEO of MessageCast, a developer of online news alerts.

"Demand for online video ads by Ford Motor, Colgate-Palmolive and others will contribute to a breakout year for online advertising in 2005 — and spell trouble for newspapers and TV, financial analysts say.

"A surge in text ads on search sites Google Latest News about Google and Yahoo  Latest News about Yahoo — combined with more high-speed Internet users — also will help push online ad spending over US$10 billion for the first time, analysts say."

Jon Swartz. Growth of Online Ads Hits High Speed. TechNewsWorld. Jan. 22, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Digital-music service Napster is considering remaking itself to offer movie downloads too.

"Speaking at the Midem music conference in Cannes this week, Napster CEO Chris Gorog said the company is considering offering movies alongside its current catalog of some 1 million music tracks.

"’We are currently considering moving into video, particularly to tap the younger video game generation,’ the Financial Times quoted him as saying. ‘I do think that while there are huge players in the delivery of movies like Sky, there could be a role for Napster.’"

Jo Best. Napster Eyes Movie Downloads. News.com. Jan. 24, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Online music stores like Apple Computer’s iTunes have been a boon to fans and the beleaguered music industry, but many of them still have a long way to go, according to new research released Tuesday.

"A study from market research firm Shelley Taylor & Associates blasts music stores for confusing navigation and locking users into proprietary formats and music players.

"’As a result, users’ initial enthusiasm is being deflated as they realize they have been conned–there are more limitations imposed on legitimate digital downloads, media players and portable devices than advertised,’ Taylor said."

Reuters. Study: Online Music Stores Falling Short. News.com. Jan. 18, 2005.

See also:
Shelley Taylor & Associates. New Study Accuses Music Download Services of Spreading Latest Consumer Disease: Digital Deficit Disorder. (Press Release.) Jan. 18, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.