Anonymous kicks off anti-SOPA DDoS rampage -- updated
- 20 January, 2012 10:50
- Comments 3
Update: As at 11:50 AEST the FBI's site appeared to be down. Anonymous also issued the following tweet: "FBI.GOV TANGO DOWN! #Megaupload".
Anonymous appears to be currently carrying what is one of its largest DDoS attacks in what it claims is a response to the proposed SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy measures in the US and recent charges laid against the backers of file sharing site MegaUpload.
Read more Anonymous-related news
In tweets from an Anonymous-linked news account the group claims to have some 5635 “confirmed people” using its Low Orbiting Ion Cannon (LOIC) distributed denial of service (DDoS) software to attack sites belonging to organisations it claims supports the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
As at the time of publishing the sites of the Motion Picture Association of America MPAA), Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as well as those of the US Justice Department and Universal Music, were down.
The attacks follow high profile protests against the SOPA and PIPA by the likes of Google and Wikipedia.
The attacks also follow the shutting down of file sharing site MegaUpload following the charging of seven individuals and two companies with multiple counts of racketeering, copyright infringement, and money laundering.
read:Hacktivism: The fallout from Anonymous and LulzSec
The indictment against those behind MegaUpload alleges they were “members of the ‘Mega Conspiracy,’ a worldwide criminal organization whose members engaged in criminal copyright infringement and money laundering on a massive scale with estimated harm to copyright holders well in excess of $500,000,000 and reported income in excess of $175,000,000.
“Megaupload.com is a commercial website and service operated by the MegaConspiracy that reproduces and distributes copies of popular copyrighted content over the Internet without authorization.”
The indictment alleges that from at least September 2005, Megaupload.com has been used by the defendants and other members and associates of the Mega Conspiracy to “willfully reproduce and distribute” millions of copyrighted copies of motion pictures, television programs, musical recordings, electronic books, images, video games, and other computer software. “Over the more than five years of its existence, the MegaConspiracy has aggressively expanded its operations into a large number of related Internet businesses, which are connected directly to, or at least financially dependent upon, the criminal conduct associated with Megaupload.com,” the indictment reads.
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Comments
Mike
What a laughable lawsuit. The site is just a youtube for files. Calling it a criminal enterprise is like calling YouTube a criminal enterprise because a user uploaded a copyrighted file. If MegaUpload was indeed based outside of the USA, then DMCA takedown notices mean nothing to them and they are not legally obliged to act upon them.
Perhaps this is indicative of a new tactic that the FBI is trying. Create a vexatious lawsuit, that they know they will lose, just to intimidate those who they don't particularly like. A step backwards for democracy, and two steps forward for our corporate overlords (MPAA/RIAA)
Steve
Simple....You are breaking the law and it is stealing. Just because it's in a digital format, doesn't give you the right to take something that you haven't paid for which the creators want money for.
Stop all your complaining you internet freeloaders. People have to put food into their mouths, and by not paying for stuff and copying it to give to other freeloaders, you are nothing more than a cowardly thief! Grow up!
gnome
@steve, it sounds like all those people that you emotionally say 'have to put food into their mouths' might actually be the gaggle of lawyers involved in endless legalistic gameplaying on behalf of their corporate beneficiaries.
In any case, the content corporations usually seem much more willing to hand money to lawyers than they are to the artists who provide their source material.
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