The Post-Gazette's Adrian McCoy keeps an eye on the Internet and any online developments in arts and entertainment.

The Internet has been around long enough to have its own attic -- an ever-expanding repository of art, pop culture and information. It's the San Francisco-based Internet Archive, a Web site where surfers can spend hours exploring a universe of archived books, films, music and more.

It's not just any old online attic, though. In May, California officially recognized the Internet Archive, established in 1996, as a library. The designation makes the online archive eligible to apply for several federal grant programs that are administered by the state of California.

But even more importantly, says Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive founder and digital librarian, was the recognition that a digital library is on equal footing with a print material archive -- that the Internet is becoming "more a part of our real civic structure."

The IA Web site explains, "Libraries exist to preserve society's cultural artifacts and to provide access to them. If libraries are to continue to foster education and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it's essential for them to extend those functions into the digital world. Without cultural artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures."

From vintage newsreels to recently uploaded V-logs, there's a good chance they are stored somewhere in the Internet Archive. Grateful Deadheads can follow the band in cyberspace from the '60s through the '90s in a series of live concerts preserved in their entirety. Or fans can download a recording of Allen Ginsberg teaching a poetry class, hear a Groucho Marx radio program or watch a move or classic cartoon.

In terms of pure entertainment, the IA is treasure trove. Much of the material it contains is either in the public domain or posted under a creative commons license, in which copyright holders can grant some distribution rights to the public.

Music fans can listen to live performances by contemporary artists or hear a radio broadcast from decades ago. Audio files can be downloaded or streamed. Many little-known bands, and a few well-known ones, have current shows posted here -- including Hank Williams III and Gomez (including their June 2006 show here at Mr. Small's Theatre).

There's a collection of vintage radio dramas and comedy programs: among them, Bob and Ray, "The Adventures of Superman," "The Inner Sanctum" and Groucho Marx and "You Bet Your Life," along with big band broadcasts and World War II news reports. The famous Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, which touched off a nationwide panic about space invaders, is stored here, along with all the other Mercury Theater radio plays.

There are more than 800 feature films and shorts to watch, including George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" -- one of the most popular movie downloads on the site -- and other classics such as "Rashomon," "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," "Battleship Potemkin" and "His Girl Friday." There are many B horror movies as well, along with instructional and industrial films and classic animation from Warner Bros. and Max Fleischer.

Book lovers can browse through collections of old books, which are stored as PDF files, complete with illustrations. Some are e-books contributed by the Project Gutenberg online library.

The IA has gone a long way with digital preservation, too. In the deepest recesses of this online attic, The Wayback Machine stores snapshots of long-gone Web pages. According to Wikipedia, by 2006 the Wayback Machine occupied two petabytes (that's two quadrillion bytes) of memory storage space, and is growing rapidly.

For those who are nostalgic for their old computer programs, there's The Classic Software Preservation Project (CLASP), an archive of retail software dating back to the 1970s, along with collections of freeware and shareware.

All of this great stuff is accessible at no cost, but users are encouraged to donate to the site.

www.archive.org

PODCAMP 2, the second edition of the new media workshop held here last November, is scheduled for Aug. 18 and 19 at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Downtown.

PodCamps are happening across the country. The free "un-conference" features sessions for people interested in all levels of audio and video podcasting, blogging and social networking. Sessions are tailored to both novices and experienced new media producers.

It's a chance to meet some of the leading figures in this relatively new field. Last year's event featured workshops by one of the PodCamp founders, Chris Brogan of Network2; Brian Conley of "Alive in Baghdad," a videocast that features reports from Iraqi citizens; and Justin Kownacki, creator and producer of the Pittsburgh-based Web series "Something to Be Desired."

To pre-register or learn more, visit the PodCamp Pittsburgh Web site.

podcamppittsburgh.com

WATCH & CHAT: "Kyle XY" viewers can see weekly episodes online and chat with other fans while they're watching.

A deal between Disney-ABC Television Group's ABC Family and Lycos, Inc. lets viewers stage their own virtual viewing parties for the show through the Lycos' Watch & Chat video platform. Viewers can pause, rewind and fast forward the show and set a time to watch it with friends or other fans.

"Kyle XY" will be available online through Sept. 14.

Lycos launched its proprietary Watch & Chat technology in November 2006 with Lycos Cinema, which enables a group of people to watch video content and communicate in a real-time chat. The service was enhanced with Lycos MIX, which lets users pull Web video clips from sites like YouTube and MySpace, create their own playlists and then share and talk about them with others.

kylexy.lycos.com

cinema.lycos.com

mix.lycos.com

WOULD YOU LIKE AN ALBUM WITH YOUR TICKET? Bon Jovi fans who buy advance tickets to the band's October concert in Newark, N.J,. are also getting a digital copy of the band's latest album.

If they buy a ticket through Ticketmaster before June 22 and pay an extra $9.99 for the download, they get a digital copy of "Lost Highway" through iTunes.

It's said to be the first bundled sale of ticket-and-album-download.

Bon Jovi is the first band to play at the new Prudential Center in Newark.

www.ticketmaster.com/bonjovi

ONLINE MOVIE TRAILERS ARE GROWING UP. Hollywood has been promoting the MPAA green-labeled approved-for-all-audiences trailers for some time.

Now, PG-13 or stronger-rated trailers are being shown on sites geared mainly to adults or only between the hours of 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.