Net Vets Take Hits

Cable World, June 19, 2000

Gosh, the Internet is a rough neighborhood.

Just ask the folks over at Reel.com, video retailer Hollywood Entertainment's online venture. That is, if you can find them in the local unemployment line.

Even though the Web site did land-office business hawking videotapes and DVDs, it proved a financial sinkhole for Hollywood Entertainment. So the parent company decided last week to fill the last orders and send Reel.com to the Web boneyard. It joins several others, notably the Digital Entertainment Network, auction site Surfbuzz.com and poor little ToyTime.com.

And if the Recording Industry Association of America has its way, there will be another grave neighbor. The all-powerful RIAA and the National Music Publishers Association have filed a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court against Web music bad boy Napster. They claim the song-swapping software company -- which has racked up enough lawsuits to paper an office building -- is directly linked to dwindling CD sales among college students. They want Napster.com shut down.

In an odd twist, the RIAA has a new and unlikely ally -- MP3.com's honcho Michael Robertson. Zowee. Fresh off settlements forged with the big record labels to end his own legal copyright tangles, it appears Robertson wants to play nice. He made statements last week poo-pooing Napster, saying everyone should respect music copyrights.

If the Internet is war, he's Italy.

And finally, there is the report in ZDTV last week about the poor former computer exec making $50,000 per year in the Silicon Valley. That's a fairly comfy wage elsewhere, but in the valley of overinflated hopes and prices, it has earned him a spacious living space in a central location.

In the homeless shelter. Ouch.