By Walt Hickey

An Omen

Whatever remains of “Napster” has been sold off for the umpteenth time to a media company that you’ve never heard of for $207 million, continuing the legacy of a filesharing service bringing the music industry to its knees before imploding. Launched originally in 1999 as the most successful of the peer-to-peer file sharing services, Napster was crushed by lawsuits and shut down in 2001, and filed for bankruptcy a year later. Still, assets remained, and a corpse with a known name can have juice in Silicon Valley. So in 2003, its branding and logos were snapped up by Roxio at the bankruptcy auction, the same company that then rebranded the doomed iTunes rival Pressplay with Napster’s more well-known name. That was then sold off to Best Buy in 2008 for $121 million, which then merged it into Rhapsody, which phased out the brand in favor of Napster yet again. In 2020, this was sold to MelodyVR, a virtual reality concerts company. Given that’s a clearly stupid idea with no juice, it was then sold yet again to Hivemind and Algorand, which are Web3 and blockchain companies. That went about as well as you’d expect, hence the recent sale. The buyer this time is Infinite Reality, a company focused on “3D and AI-powered experiences,” which sounds about right. All I’m saying is that for the past two decades, an industry buying Napster has been god’s way of telling you that you make too much money.

Scharon Harding, Ars Technica

Wild Horses

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management annually rounds up wild horses roaming in the American West on public lands, as their unmitigated presence can have negative effects on the areas’ ecosystem. As of March 1, the Bureau is reporting that there are 73,130 wild horses on the range, down just 400 from last year’s count of 73,520 — that’s the lowest number in eight years. According to the agency, there are around 47,000 excess wild horses and burros in the west, meaning that current levels are way too high to avoid damage to soil and water. The issue is that at a moment when budgets are being cut, caring for the horses that have been caught is too pricey. As it stands, the Bureau has 68,143 wild horses and burros in captivity, which is approaching the maximum that it can handle. The Bureau can only adopt out around 5,000 to 7,000 horses in its care every year, and even that program is now on hold after federal courts decided it violated federal law. Without mitigation, wild horse herds can double every 4 years, presenting a bit of an impasse.

Scott Streater, E&E News

Unification

In a somewhat surprising final twist to the saga of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Unification Church in Japan has been ordered to dissolve following an investigation spurred by his killing. This requires some context: The Unification Church, known officially as Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and derisively called “Moonies” by its detractors, is a controversial South Korean church that made inroads in Japan beginning in the 1960s. It’s a controversial religious group, with many who have left it saying they were forced or coerced to donate their life savings. The church enjoyed relative protection thanks to close ties with the Liberal Democratic Party, which has controlled Japan’s government for most of its post-war democracy. An internal investigation found that 179 of 379 LDP lawmakers had interacted with the party. This came to a violent head when LDP stalwart Shinzo Abe was assassinated. The killer blamed the church for bankrupting his family and exploiting his mother, blamed Abe’s party for protecting them and demanded its dissolution. Upon investigation, authorities evidently thought the guy made some pretty valid points, and pretty much every one of his demands have been subsequently met after a careful consideration of the evidence by the government and courts. This is a pretty rare outcome for a guy who shot a former head of government. The Unification Church becomes just the third religious group after the Myokakuji group (convicted of fraud) and Aum Shinrikyo (which attacked the subway with nerve gas) to be revoked.

Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press and Shaimaa Khalil and Kelly Ng, BBC News

Algorithms

A new study from Ampere Media found that the algorithmic recommendations of streaming services have become the third-ranked reason people choose to view a given television show or film, with 26 percent citing it as a contributing factor. Of the respondents, 46 percent cited the algorithm as behind their liking of a genre, while only 35 percent cited having people they like in the show as the reason. This means that the algorithm has now surpassed word of mouth (cited by only 23 percent of respondents) and good reviews (cited by just 21 percent). What’s particularly interesting is where streaming recommendations stand country by country: China, the United Kingdom and India all tied for the highest percentage who cited the algorithm at 30 percent. The U.S. was pretty much average, but 3 countries came in way lower, holding the least respect for the algorithm (coming in at just 19 percent). All of them have a rich history of cinema and unique domestic film culture: Italy, Japan and most obviously of all, the French. That’s somewhat comforting; it will be a cold day in hell when snooty French cinéastes pick a movie based on the directions of an American robot.

Erik Gruenwedel, Media Play News

European League

This week, NBA owners will review a plan to launch a league in Europe, a new venture with 8 to 10 franchises in it, and with up to 4 spots for teams in the EuroLeague to compete in the NBA league. Franchises in London or Paris are being eyed to be worth $500 million, and the NBA is selling franchise slots to outside groups while also retaining 50 percent of the equity just to get their beaks wet. No formal vote is scheduled, but it follows a study of how the league might be able to muscle in on Europe, where basketball is very popular and has generated several hundreds of millions of dollars per year for the league — the league plays 40 games a year outside of North America — but which after some tire kicking the NBA thinks might be closer to a $3 billion business.

Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams, Sportico

Lithium 6

Nuclear fusion reactors require lithium 6 (an isotope of lithium) as fuel, and while the process is still experimental, if it ever hits commercial-scale energy production, we’re going to need a lot of lithium 6. Traditionally, it’s made in a manner that uses a lot of mercury and causes so much environmental damage that the process has been banned since 1963. I want to be clear, do you have any idea how bad for the environment something has to be for the American government to ban it in the early sixties? Our current supplies of lithium 6 are whatever we had lying around at Oak Ridge as a result of nuclear warhead production, but the supply is limited. This is coming to a head, as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France will use most of the global reserves of 25 to 30 kilograms of tritium, which can be bred from lithium 6. If it actually works we’ll need lithium 6 by the ton, so how to score more lithium 6 safely is an important obstacle. The exciting news is that a team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology believes it’s found a way to extract lithium 6 from brine without mercury, and can reach the level of enrichment suitable for fusion fuel after 25 4-hour cycles.

Jacek Krywko, Scientific American

Comics

The comic book industry was rocked by Diamond Comic Distributors declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which spelled serious problems for the distribution of comics in the United States. For decades, Diamond was the middleman of the industry, serving as the intermediary connecting publishers with the thousands of mom-and-pop comic book stores that dotted the country. It was the main conduit through which a complicated, diverse and inexpensive product made its way to lots and lots of geographically distributed businesses that had never consolidated. A lot of that changed with the pandemic, but nevertheless, Diamond’s disappearance would have still caused massive and cascading supply issues. There is positive news: after a reportedly competitive auction, it’s been bought out of bankruptcy by Alliance Entertainment, which is a distributor and wholesaler of tabletop games, music and movies. This is the kind of steady hand that publishers and retailers had been hoping could take on Diamond’s role. The acquisition will be financed by an existing $120 million revolving credit facility that will be increased to $160 million.

Rich Johnston, Bleeding Cool and Milton Griepp, ICV2

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