Megaupload is shut down by the feds, and its executives arrested.

I don't think I set out to answer anything other than why this is in the news.

Old media interests (e.g Murdock empire) vs new media interests (e.g Google). That pretty much guarantees it will be on TV, in the newspapers and on the web whereever you look.

As to Google's power to now avoid regulation - well yes they have engaged in some shabby practices in the PRC - but it is a measure of Google's influence that the Government of the PRC engage with them at all! Wow!
 
Yes, but .... the very nature of the Internet is that it can't easily be closed down. As fast as you shut one area another pops up. That was the idea behind it in the first place.

Authorities the world over are worried sick about this because it undermines them. People are reacting in all sorts of ways that could never have been imagined.

Yes, the people in charge (both corporations and their lapdog governments) aren't keen on freedom.

As history tells us, the amount of freedom given to people expands and contracts over time - revolution, hubris, then counter-revolution ... over and over ... big cycles and small cycles within those ... at the moment in the west we're in a cycle where freedom is being reduced.

So the government is called in to preserve the assets of the very wealthy. On the surface it's just normal international policing ... but I don't see the same vigour and determination in policing to preserve the assets of little people being gouged by the outrageous tax evasion of the very rich. We have lawful and unlawful theft. If you're big enough, it's not a crime, just "good business".

When the big end of town pays its fair share of tax then I'll agree to my taxes being spent on hunting down file sharing sites. Otherwise, this should be a job for the companies - to find attractive business models that will attract customers ... which includes producing quality music rather than training people's ears to respond to slapdash overproduced non-events performed by prancing bimbettes and their mechanical accompaniment ...

// end rant //
 
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