I've been talking about the Dotcom issues with a number of people for a while now, and I (or we) have come to the conclusion that there was one surprisingly sim

I've been talking about the Dotcom issues with a number of people for a while now, and I (or we) have come to the conclusion that there was one surprisingly simple reason that action was taken to bring him down: the promo video. It featured like 20 superstars who're all really big. From the perspective of big media it was something dangerously close to legitimizing piracy on an unprecedented scale in the eyes of the public as means to get music, movies, etc. If the video was never released no big raid would have taken place (it was more symbolic than anything, anyway -- Dotcom made the big flashy promo video, something equally dramatic needed to be done to dethrone its legitimacy -- something that your aunt tells your mother ("oh, your son uses Megaupload?! You know that Kim Dotcom -- the guy who made it, he was on the news -- he was arrested you know that right?"). I think gov't was convinced to take action by big media probably with an appeal like "hey, they don't buy our stuff, that means no tax dollar for you".