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No not so. The french own an incredibly percentage of a lot of markets. Ever heard of Vivendi? They are a big media corporation, and that includes a huge majority of computer game companies (almost every one of the big ones except EA). For instance they own Blizzard. They own Sierra (which is on the way down). You can google for more examples of who they own.
"VU Games is the second-largest publisher of PC game software in North America and Europe"
http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/vu/en/subsidiaries /u_games.cfm.htm
"Universal Music Group (UMG) is the world's largest music company. "
http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/vu/en/subsidiaries /u_music.cfm.htm

They own almost 20% of NBC as well.

Vivendi/universal is just one example of a massive french company owning lots of others. It's sometimes surprising how much the french actually own.

No not so. The french own an incredibly percentage of a lot of markets. Ever heard of Vivendi? They are a big media corporation, and that includes a huge majority of computer game companies (almost every one of the big ones except EA). For instance they own Blizzard. They own Sierra (which is on the way down). You can google for more examples of who they own.
"VU Games is the second-largest publisher of PC game software in North America and Europe"
http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/vu/en/subsidiaries /u_games.cfm.htm
"Universal Music Group (UMG) is the world's largest music company. "
http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/vu/en/subsidiaries /u_music.cfm.htm

They own almost 20% of NBC as well.

Vivendi/universal is just one example of a massive french company owning lots of others. It's sometimes surprising how much the french actually own.

Yeah, I hate this world where there are one or two mega players with enough clout to define the market. Apparently Universal was part of the Vivendi idiocy and was recently sold to NBC (a Division of GE now called NBC Uni).

Anyway, I decided to look up Universal Studios to see if they had a beefier press release. Here is a slightly longer article on Reuters. It sounds like NBCUni and Microsoft are siting in a back room brewing up some sort of concoction that the rest of the world will regret. This efforts appears to be part of something called BASCAP (Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy).

I wish these people would just realize that the way to beat piracy is simply to establish channels for distributing the movies that are neither too costly nor too burdensome to the public. Instead, we have monopolies working in backrooms with monopolies making something that is both expensive and restrictive to the point that piracy will continue to prevail.

"Record companies can't make money at a dollar a song."

That's a pretty strong assertion to make without offering any supporting evidence. How much does it cost to record a song? If the record companies really can't make money selling songs at a buck a pop, with hundreds of thousands to millions of potential downloads then I'd say they're fundamentally unfit to continue in business.

I had some friends in a band who put out their own album, using the money they earned working in a warehouse... if they can afford to put together what was really a very good sounding CD on just a few thousand dollars, why can't a record company? They've got too much overhead, too many executives, too much marketing. Here's the Vivendi Universal 6K report from '03, being the most recently published report available in english. Unfortunately there's not a lot in there about cost of salaries vs cost of royalties.

For years the music cartels have been protected by their control of the means of distribution. They grew fat and lazy, just like Americas airline companies during the era of regulation. Now, they're being forced to compete with alternative distribution systems, and they can't do it. Just like the airlines they resort to legal protections (in this case endless civil lawsuits, in the case of the airlines bankruptcy protection from creditors) instead of rebuilding their companies.

What we need now is a well funded set of start-up record companies. They could eat the old guard's lunch without breaking a sweat and help to increase the diversity of music available on the radio.

i currently subscribe to emusic (it's the best: flat fees with no download limits and no DRM) and guess who owns this very popular online music distribution network....? vivendi!

so instead of apple re-inventing the wheel maybe they just might buy emusic since they are rumored to be putting out their own music service on the net soon.

according to their website they're the biggest selling record label with Ashanti, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige, Andrea Bocelli, Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Eminem, Johnny Hallyday , Enrique Iglesias, Jay-Z, Elton John, Ronan Keating, Diana Krall, Limp Bizkit, Nelly, No Doubt, Florent Pagny, Luciano Pavarotti, Sandy & Junior, Shaggy, Sting, Texas, Shania Twain, U2 and Russell Watson. they also own pressplay

I've never heard of computerandvideogames.com and I don't know anything about its reputation but I do note that the article does not portray the rumour as fact. The article begins "If insider speculation is to be believed ..." and then proceeds to report the facts as facts and the rumours as rumours. Presumably they think the readers are intelligent enough to make up their own mind.

I work as a journalist myself (at a foreign newspaper) and my professional opinion is that this rumour is not just smoke. The front page of Vivendi's website says:

"Following the many rumors about possible asset disposals, Vivendi Universal would like to again emphasize that no statement or comments will be made on disposals before their completion."

Experience as a business journalist tells me that this means Vivendi will be issuing a statement within the next few days and the statement will probably confirm the rumour. If there is no truth to the rumour, they would have dismissed it as such or denied it outright.

Mandrake is not going out of business, they are seeking protection from their creditors and will reorganize their business model. Bankruptcy allows a good business to overcome a mistake which would normally destroy the company. Selling enhancements to a free product is a good business model and one which can be highly profitable. The core of Mandrake is solid, it is the other avenues Mandrakesoft took to increase revenues which have faltered.

Looking at Mandrakesoft's investors, Vivendi is a major investor in the company and has deep pockets. Why do you think a relatively obscure French company can get highly visible and valuable shelf space at US stores like CompUSA.

I find the "Mandrake is for newbies" comments on Slashdot worse FUD than anything Microsoft puts out. Mandrake is a Linux distro and can be as easy or as difficult as on wants to make it. Nobody has to use or even install the the usability features of Mandrake and experienced users can do an expert text based install and create EXACTLY the system they want. This is not to mention that ease of use != newbie. Many highly experienced users prefer the simplicity which Mandrake offers knwoing that underneath it is Linux and can be adminstered either through the convenient supplied interface or via the command line ro by directly editing the configuration files.. Once you have gotten past the NEWBIE stage of impressing yourself with Linux, you realize it is just another OS spending hours configuring a machine is a waste fo time since that time could be spent actually doing something productive with the system.

Universal (supporter of this and the DMCA) is one of the largest music companies in the world and a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal. Vivendi announced this week that it's pretty damn close to total bankruptcy, in fact the news section of its own web site is all about restructuring and a need to raise cash fast due to its stock being lowered to junk bond status. So eventually what goes around comes around.

Universal (supporter of this and the DMCA) is one of the largest music companies in the world and a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal. Vivendi announced this week that it's pretty damn close to total bankruptcy, in fact the news section of its own web site is all about restructuring and a need to raise cash fast due to its stock being lowered to junk bond status. So eventually what goes around comes around.

(Maybe if the fees went towards Universal Broadband?)

Fine with me, as log as it didn't go to Vivendi Universal.
These days, you never know... they *do* get some dime on every cd-r, after all. ;-)

It is all over comedy central too. I watch that channel more than any other (by far) and Impostor is being promoed to death on that channel as well.

I would have thought comedy central, sci-fi, and dimension (film distributor) was all owned by the same company, but that is not the case, so actual money did change in promoting this movie.

Sci-Fi is owned by USA Networks (which was just bought by Universal/Vivendi, the same company that owns mp3.com)

Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, says this site.

Dimension is owned by Miramax, which is owned by Disney -- says this site and this site.

I don't watch too much tv, but you would think that Disney would plug the movie on ABC and ESPN, which it also owns, especially since they are hurting for cash right now. Why not promote in house?

How is this related to Impostor? Only tangentially. But be aware of the Big Six media companies. Three are involved in this film. It's more than six, but the other companies are AOL/TimeWarner, Sony, NewsCorp, and Bertelsmann (of Napster fame).

Others would add GE to the list, because they own NBC.

In any case, the entirety of our information and entertainment world comes nearly exclusively through those 8 companies.