Anonymous Tackles Virgin Media Over Pirate Bay Blocking

[The Wooster]

Anonymous Tackles Virgin Media Over Pirate Bay Blocking

UK ISP, Virgin Media's, compliance with the law seems to have angered Anonymous, which has responded with a DDOS attack.

Well, here we go again.

Last week Virgin Media became the first ISP to comply with a high court ruling that orders internet service providers in the UK to block access to torrent sharing site, The Pirate Bay. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.374008-Virgin-Media-Blockades-The-Pirate-Bay] Other ISPs are expected to follow suit shortly.

In response, Anonymous has used a DDOS attack to take down Virginmedia.com.

"#Anonymous have just taken down #VirginMedia website again because of their involvement in the #Censorship of The Pirate Bay #TPB #OpTPB," tweeted Anonymous UK. [https://twitter.com/#!/AnonUK/status/199899362741059584]

That's right, it's virgin versus virgins in a battle to the death. I'm sorry, that one was irresistible, please don't hack us.

Virginmedia.com is still down at the time of writing, but store.virginmedia.com seems to be working normally, meaning Virgin probably aren't losing money over this.

"Virgin Media prides itself on being a responsible ISP, and acts under instruction of Court Orders to block sites deemed by the courts to be infringing copyright," reads an official statement Virgin released when it announced its compliance with the law.

The last time something like this happened, Anonymous took down a whole bunch of websites [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115367-Anonymous-Exacts-Revenge-for-Megaupload-Takedown ] in quick succession (usually right as I was about to hit the publish button), so expect updates to this article.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-09-anonymous-attacks-virgin-media-for-blocking-the-pirate-bay]



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[Daystar Clarion]

'That's right, it's virgin versus virgins in a battle to the death'

I love you Grey, have I ever mentioned that?

I don't think I've ever considered Anon as a threat, every time I hear news about them, I just picture some neckbearded manchild sitting in a basement.

 

[Lt. Rocky]

The idea that blocking a site like The Pirate Bay would actually hinder torrenting was crazy enough, now Anon thinks that DDOS'ing Virgin will hinder the alleged hindering?

Geez.

At least there was some solidarity in their vengance over Megaupload, silly as it was, as it's now impossible to access the site and all the stuff on it. It's not as if any of the torrents on TPB were hosted by the site, and couldn't be found on anywhere else on the internet.

 

[hazabaza1]

Fucking hell, this is my provider. They're shit enough already, all this can do is make them go down more often.
Fuck off, Anonymous.

 

[Yamikotai]

Fucking hell, this is my provider. They're shit enough already, all this can do is make them go down more often.
Fuck off, Anonymous.

I'm fairly sure it's just their front-facing 'marketing' site that's taken down; that won't do anything to affect Virgin's service.

 

[gigastar]

Wait, didnt i only need to get one add-on for Firefox then i could circumvent this anyway?

Well either way, given that im able to post right now, i can say that my internet isnt being affected by the hack.

 

[DTH1337]

So, if other ISPs are going to be following this, then I assume that Anonymous will probably take down their websites as well.

What does Anonymous expect these ISPs to do? Simply refuse to follow the court order? It's not like they had a choice anyway. They're not happy with blocking access to a website, but the law states that when a court order is given to a company, they have to abide by it, and yet, they're punished by Anonymous for simply abiding by the law of court orders.

Once again Anonymous, you continue to mess things up by going after the wrong people and companies. They did the exact same thing during the Wikileaks incident.

 

[Scrustle]

This seems really pointless. I really don't see Virgin Media bowing to some hacker group because it took down it's website. It'll be back up before long and Virgin will just ignore the message. What else are they going to do anyway? Directly disobey a court order because of this? Don't think so.

 

[Qitz]

'That's right, it's virgin versus virgins in a battle to the death'

I love you Grey, have I ever mentioned that?

I don't think I've ever considered Anon as a threat, every time I hear news about them, I just picture some neckbearded manchild sitting in a basement.

You better be careful! Anon hears you saying that they'll go find an Amaterasu poster to tear down!

What's Virgin Media going to do without their precious website?!!?! Besides continuing to not give a fuck.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I'm bored of this.

Pirating is illegal. If you do it, you are brekaing the law and you are a criminal, it is that simple. Society needs laws and rules to function, and since the only reason Anonymous can exist is because of a society of rules and laws that supports their idiocy, I can only conclude that they are all morons.

 

[Richardplex]

Weren't Virgin the ISP who were like "we will comply because we are lawful, but we'd just like to point out this is utter BS and such heavy handed tactics won't do crap against piracy"? (Slightly paraphrased). Pick your targets better anon... and you know, use tactics that cause some level of inconvenience.

 

[Bobic]

This whole mindless 'anti-censorship' thing annoys me. Ah, the government is stopping me from doing blatantly illegal things, CENSORSHIP!!!!!

Do they scream 1984 in the face of the police officer that pulled them over for speeding due to the government 'controlling their life'.

 

[SnipErlite]

Well. Guess everybody will have to stop torrenting now OR use any of the other 1000 torrent sites out there.

Also, Virgin Media suck. They're my provider and their customer service is pretty awful.

 

[Dastardly]

How often do any of us go to the website of our ISP, anyway? That's like setting up a protest in Wal-Mart, but doing it in the paint aisle.

 

[matrix3509]

EDIT: You know what? Nevermind. Its totally not even worth it trying to talk to people on this site.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Do they scream 1984 in the face of the police officer that pulled them over for speeding due to the government 'controlling their life'.

I'm pretty sure they would, if they weren't too busy shitting their pants. I think most individual Anon members would fall into either category - the ones stupid enough to yell "I'm being being oppressed" at a police officer, or the ones so cowardly that they tremble with fear in a face-to-face confrontation when deprived of their anonymity.

In fact, I think we saw the same two sides of the coin in the MegaUpload case, with Kim Dotcom proclaiming his badass gangsta persona when things were going well, then screaming police oppression when he got busted.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

I wonder how many of the people here who will undoubtedly hate on Anon have ever stood up to defend anything they have believed in ever?

When did Anonymous ever stand up? The whole concept is that they avoid standing up, and scuttle like cockroaches to avoid the light.

 

[The Lugz]

Well. Guess everybody will have to stop torrenting now OR use any of the other 1000 torrent sites out there.

Also, Virgin Media suck. They're my provider and their customer service is pretty awful.

ah, the problem here is you are not their customer.

the shareholders are the real customer of any major corporation you are just the mindless web surfing zombie that gives them money for providing said shabby service

and thus the truth was once told, and lo! not a single carp was given that day.