Watch out, West Coast Newsgroupers, because a new California law prohibiting online impersonations officially went into effect this weekend. Violators of a new California law will face a fine of up to $1,000 and/or a year in jail.To summarize the bill, which was passed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, classifies electronic impersonation as a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1k, and jail time of up to a year; in addition to the right of the impersonatee to sue the impersonator. It offers no provisions for anyone who is pretending to be someone on the internet for comedic effect. Basically the state has created a new crime, and a new section is being added to the penal code. To be inacted you have to have the intent to harm, intimidate, threaten, or defraud another person.The text of the bill says it is now against the law in California to “falsely impersonate another in either his or her private or official capacity, as specified. Existing law also makes it a crime to knowingly access and, without permission, alter, damage, delete, destroy, or otherwise use any data, computer, computer system, or computer network in order to devise or execute any scheme or artifice to defraud, deceive, or extort, or wrongfully control or obtain money, property, or data. For a violation thereof, in addition to specified criminal penalties, existing law authorizes an aggrieved party to bring a civil action against the violator, as specified.”While the law doesn't explicitly address free speech concerns, it does specify that perpetrators must demonstrate a clear intent to harm, intimidate, or defraud the individual being impersonated -- or, for that matter, anyone else.How the law will play out is, of course, something only the courts and time will decide. For the time being, it would be better to be safe, rather than sorry. Be yourself online.From: http://bit.ly/i1WUKO

Americans are now spending as many hours online as they do in front of their TV screens, according to a survey released by Forrester on Monday.The average American now spends roughly 13 hours per week using the Internet and watching TV offline, Forrester finds, based on its survey of more than 30,000 customers. The Internet has long captivated the attention of younger Americans to a greater extent than TV and is now proving more popular to Gen X (ages 31 to 44) for the first time ever. Younger Baby Boomers (ages 45 to 54) are spending the same amount of time per week using both media.While the amount of time Americans spend watching TV has remained roughly the same in the past five years, Internet use has increased by 121% in the same time frame.So what are Americans doing online? Shopping, mostly. In a similar survey issued in 2007, a little more than one-third of online respondents said they were shopping online; now, 60% claim to do so. A little more than one-third also access social networking sites, such as newsgroups regularly, two-thirds of Generation Yers report that they update a social networking profile at least once per month.Blogging, listening to streaming audio and IMing prove far less popular, engaging one-third or less of the U.S. online population respectively.In addition, Forrester expects that 2 million new households will be connected to the Internet by the end of the year compared to the end of 2009, and that 82% of households will have Internet by 2015. Broadband will have reached 5.5 million new households by the end of this year, meaning that more than 90% of connected households will have access to high speed Internet by the end of 2010.The effect and growth of subscribers to Usenet newsgroups are expected to follow an increasing trend.From: http://bit.ly/ibdXBN

Google has finally given some attention to Google Groups and has given it a bit of a facelift.Google Groups is Google's version of USENET newsgroups which offers users a small selection of newsgroups to access. The all-text newsgroups service of Google Groups hadn't had much attention as of late, with growing concerns from users on whether if Google had forgotten about the service which was rarely maintained.Google has set to change that with a few adjustments that have been made to the service.As one enhancement, Google has made it easier to search for and browse both groups and individual postings by entering a topic in a single search bar. Once users find a group they want to follow, they can now add it to a list of favorites easily accessible on the left side of the window. As a result, the overall interface has a cleaner and more streamlined look and feel.New keyboard shortcuts offer a way to quickly cycle through the different forum threads and topics. To find a list of all the new shortcuts, users can press ? on their keyboard. Also, tapping into a new toolbar of icons, users can more easily format text and add hyperlinks and images.Google Groups is no substitute for complete USENET access. By comparison, Google Groups only offers a variety of 25,000 text newsgroups (or less) - many of which are inactive, whereas a service such as NewsDemon.com Newsgroups offers more along the lines of 107,000+ only active newsgroups.Additionally, Google Groups only carries a selection of text newsgroups, where as premium Usenet provider NewsDemon.com Newsgroups offers binary newsgroups as well with over 700 day retention.The redesigned Google Groups will roll out as an option over the next week, giving users the opportunity to preview the new look and features. Google is also promising other enhancements, including better spam control, forum moderators, and improved search.From: http://bit.ly/gcDPa8