US Copyright Group — Lawsuits, DDoS, and Bomb Threats

Andorin writes "The US law firm of Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver, otherwise known as the US Copyright Group, filed suit at the end of August against another 2,177 individuals for allegedly downloading and sharing the slasher film Cornered! (In total the USCG has now filed suit against over 16,200 individuals.) In retaliation, Operation Payback, the Anonymous-led project responsible for DDoSing websites of the RIAA and MPAA, targeted the US Copyright Group's website with a DDoS, temporarily bringing it down for a few hours. The group behind the attacks say they'll continue 'until they stop being angry.' Additionally, the local police department evacuated the office of Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver after a bomb threat was emailed to the firm. The building was searched, but no bomb was found."

Comments

There's more to it

[Anonymous Coward]

This only happened after Aiplex Software was contracted to DDoS attack file sharing web sites:

http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/an-interview-with-anonymous/

Vigilante justice

[paiute]

Sometimes a fed up community just goes extralegal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_McElroy

Re:All this for a loser film?

[chebucto]

Recently a lawyer in the UK was also targeted by the 4chan group.

What's notable is that he was in the same business as the law firm in this article - sending out compliance letters for alleged copyright infringement. As this article notes, lately the UK lawyer had only been getting business from porn movie producers; all his mainstream clients had stopped hiring him because they no longer saw a net benefit in suing their fans.

This might explain why the law firm was threatening people over a c-movie: the 'real' movie studios in the US might no longer want to work with people like them.

The law firm he ended up with was ACS Law, run by middle-aged lawyer Andrew Crossley. ACS Law had, after a process of attrition, become one of the only UK firms to engage in such work. Unfortunately for Crossley, mainstream film studios had decided that suing file-sharers brought little apart from negative publicity, and so Crossley was left defending a heap of pornography, some video games, and a few musical tracks.