Guys, I believe [perhaps with the exception of Steve Ndung'u - no offense :)] that ya'll are aware of MegaUpload's closure and the arrest of its top officials. I've been reading up on the whole thing and what I know or have so far found is that: - MegaUpload does the same stuff as a number of other filesharing sites such as rapidshare.com, depositfiles.com etc (not to mention P2P which does more or less the same thing, albeit without revenues going to anyone in particular) - MegaUpload signed a deal with a number of artists like The Game, Macy Gray etc to do a viral campaign for MegaUpload (see the MegaUpload song<http://www.google.com/search?q=the+megaupload+song> ) - The artists involved in the above campaign are all signed with UMG, one of the "top three" in the music industry - UMG instructed YouTube to take down the MegaUpload song video. Kim Schmitz (MegaUpload founder) asks what authority UMG has to issue takedown notices to YouTube over material owned exclusively by MegaUpload - UMG must be really big powerful. Vivendi owns UMG, therefore Vivendi must be quite big and uber-powerful Now my questions are as follows: - Who owns Vivendi? - Why is MegaUpload being targeted by feds? Don't give me that SOPA/PIPA/copyright stuff because rapidshare and its likes are still up Is there something we're not being told here? By the way, I've tried to find out who owns Vivendi and all I am getting is info on what Vivendi owns (and they own A LOT). It's like MegaUpload took some of UMG's "babies" and told them "Hey, I'll pay you to help me do a viral campaign for me, although guys use me to pirate your [or your mother - UMG's ] music. UMG wasn't pleased and the whole thing appears to have some political twist to it. What are your thoughts? And who do you think owns Vivendi [just curious]? S.