Anonymous Attacks US Government

[Logan Westbrook]

Anonymous Attacks US Government

The internet group Anonymous has struck a blow against the very heart of copyright law in America.

Taking on loud-mouthed rock stars like Gene Simmons [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104513-Gene-Simmons-Declares-War-on-Anonymous] is one thing, but yesterday Anonymous had bigger fish to fry. As part of two months long "Operation Payback," Anonymous attacked the US Copyright Office website [http://copyright.gov/] with a denial of service attack, successfully taking it down for around half an hour.

Anonymous targeted the site because it is "Perpetuating the system that is allowing the exploitative usage of copyright and intellectual property." The US Copyright Office not only records details about copyrights, it also provides expert advice to Congress on copyright issues, as well as aiding with drafting new legislation. With that resume, it's not hard to see why the strongly pro-piracy Anonymous might consider the Copyright Office a particularly tempting target.

The websites of the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and the British Phonographic Industry, amongst others, have also been attacked as part of Operation Payback, with the RIAA site reportedly taken down for three straight days last week. Anonymous says it will keep up the attacks until it "stops being angry" and has organized actual physical demonstrations to take place tomorrow in various cities around the world.

Source: Torrentfreak [http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-ddos-takes-down-the-united-states-copyright-office-101103/] via GamePolitics [http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/11/04/anonymous-takes-down-us-copyright-office]


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[Ldude893]

It's official.

Anonymous has declared war on America.

 

[Yossarian1507]

The title made me actually think, that Anon attacked Pentagon or something...

Anoymous says it will keep up the attacks until it "stops being angry," and has organized actual physical demonstrations to take place tomorrow in various cities around the world.

Uhmm... This course of action actually makes them more angry, I think...

On the other hand, it will be fun to see how far they can get, without paying any consequences.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

This is probably all payback for Limewire and that ACTA thing that I'm fairly sure bombed along the way.

Well I find it kinda funny, and anonymous can do some pretty cool things when they decide to actually band together.

 

[EHKOS]

Cool, now let's see it do some real damage. DDoS attacks are one thing, but if they can actually make some good things happen to the Government I'm all for it. It would be nice to actually have rights again.

 

[Jesus Phish]

Well I don't particularly support what they're fighting for, but to their credit, at least Anonymous gets shit done. How many other protest groups can say the same?

Do they though? What has changed as a direct result of the site being down for 30 minutes?

 

[Icarion (aka Stockholm)]

Wow. They actually walk their talk? Respect.

This ^^. If you can say your goals and then follow through on them, I have respect for you. I don't like you or agree with you but I respect you

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

All beware the power's of anonymous.

 

[Spygon]

Nice to see them actually doing something that actual makes sence for what they are fighting for but then saying the attacks will stop "when they stop being angry" just makes them look like idoits.So now the government will be able to label them idoitic childish pranksters and no one in public will treat them seriously

 

[Dana22]

Maybe we will see some action already.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

The power of the mob is a frightening one indeed. Look at the march to Restore Sanity/Fear.

Let's hope they don't pull torches as well.

 

[Talvrae]

I had thought that Annonymous was an organisation against the church of Scientology since when does they attack things about copyrights?

 

[Pilkingtube]

Thing is they've not actually achieved anything.. all they've done is take down a website for 30 minutes, and lets be honest.. who would actually go to that website? Anonymous only seem capable of doing DDoS attacks which doesn't actually, you know, do anything. At most it's a minor irritation.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I had thought that Annonymous was an organisation against the church of Scientology since when does they attack things about copyrights?

Anonymous is just a lot of bored people on a website.

They normally organise against something when they get even more bored/pissed off.

They do take a lot of hits against Scientology but recently with the closing down of Limewire they are more annoyed at copyright laws.

 

[Harbinger_]

If they organize rallies around the world wouldn't they no longer be considered anonymous?

 

[warprincenataku]

Yeah! Let's fight for the right to steal other people's stuff! In other news, good job taking down a website I doubt many people even use.

Oh why do I bother? Just run along, strap on your padded helmets and go play anarchist.

 

[The Madman]

As an outsider observer, oughta be... entertaining to see if this develops. Frankly I'm kinda hoping for some sort of government strike back involving SWAT and FBI teams invading underground bunkers populated entirely by Guy Fawkes masked gunmen, just because that would be the most entertaining option.

Though more likely is that everyone ignores them, life continues on as usual, and this Anon group just ends up looking silly.