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Anonymous Takes Down DOJ, RIAA, MPA and Universal Music
First time accepted submitter EW87 writes "Shortly after a federal raid today brought down the file sharing service Megaupload, hackers aligned with the online collective Anonymous have shut down sites for the Department of Justice, Universal Music Group and the RIAA. 'It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org,' Anonymous operative Barrett Brown tells RT on Thursday afternoon."
it's begun!
Justice down? Sounds like Justice is alive and well to me.
I guess the war has now begun. Taking down the department of justice is a clear start of all hostility. I am not sure I agree with them. But they have stuff in their pants!
With friends like that for the cause of freedom of the internet, who needs enemies? I have to think that they just -increased- the odds of draconian legislation being passed to help contain outbreaks just like this.
I'm certain the feds can back-track the traffic and find more ip addresses to servers which were compromised and home addresses which controlled them. The net isn't as loose as it once was and the more this activity happens the more tools the feds will build to track and back-track.
Short term victory, that's all.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Anonymous operative Barrett Brown
Does not being Barret Brown contradicts beins Anonymous? ;)
Paul B.
..but regular internet users.
The summary sounds like it was a specialized group of hackers - it wasn't it was anyone who followed a link like the following:
http://pastehtml.com/view/blaoyp0qs.html
Taking down sites will do nothing but give the corrupted politicians more amo. Why not concentrate on digging up dirt con corruption and start making it public? Get some incriminating info on RIAA/MPAA/Politicians.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Perhaps the Government will soon learn that they serve us, not the other way around.
The Internet and the Government are by the people, for the people. This will not end until the old men in mothball scented suits understand that their rein of power is coming to a swift end. The people are united, angry and done listening to wrinkled, clueless senior citizens make laws that have no place in our modern society.
We are on the cusp of a new generation. The next civil war will take place in a series of tubes.
The CITIZENS of the country who elect and send representatives to make laws for them, cannot do ANYthing against the repression those representatives rain down on them - from nullification of habeas corpus to censorship. if they do, they are pushed into 'free speech zones', or batoned down in public ............. but, those who are dubbed as 'criminals', react on their behalf with unmatched efficiency that would put the biggest picketing protest to shame....
when things come to this point in a society, it means that that society, with everything in it, is broken beyond repair and needs a total reset.
Read radical news here
Well done idiotic reactionaries, you've played right into the puppetmasters trap.
Yesterday people took notice of a real issue that had both politicians and Big Media scrambling for damage control.
Big Media responds with a very calculated move to bring down a notorious hive of actual crime, it's like setting the bait for the trap.
Guess what will be talked about in the media for days now?
Guess how your CongressButts will vote when they sense danger?
GREAT JORB
I think it's quite likely this entire thing is a staged PR stunt by the SOPA/PIPA cartell to generate a little counter-press. Call me paranoid, but It apprears to me all to convenient that something like this happens just now. At least it's a theory worth entertaining, imho.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
taking the immense botnets' masters and very, very elite hackers that reside in russia and china out, without world war iii.
Read radical news here
Begun, the Internet War has!
So say we all
Websites mean little compared to winning ideological battles.
It's starting. Hopefully it will keep moving. We need to get this shit sorted out once and for all.
Unfortunately, instead of the revolt that is needed over copyright, we'll probably just end up with some kids in gitmo for the rest of their lives and another SOPA/PIPA copy passed in a few months.
Wake up, now is the time to stand up.
Great Intellect...
Because breaking the law will show the law enforcers that they are wrong for taking down a site that was breaking the law. Yeah! You go!
What law was MegaUpload breaking? They were compliant with the DMCA, from what I understand. They were simply a file repository for their users.
you think that, if they havent done that, no crap like sopa pipa schmogga would be out ?
there werent any such hacktivism back in 2005. and yet, they popped out the attack on network neutrality at that year. apparently they have been cooking it since 2-3 years. and also the rumors of acta starting came out that year. so, it was probably underway from a while ago, but noone knew.
wake up. this is a war, and they treat you as their enemy. they were BENT to do these, to implement censorship, REGARDLESS of what you did.
you havent engaged in any acts of terrorism. neither your neighbors. in fact, there hasnt been any case of domestic terrorism in the u.s. since 2001.
and yet, habeas corpus was just invalidated with the infinite detention act ..............
see ? it doesnt matter whether you behaved. they will do it regardless.
hacktivism only reminds people that all is not lost. and governments and corporations are not all that powerful. in that, its something good. its like the gestapo prison air raid british did in early ww ii. it was strategically unimportant, but the deed was so courageous and so irritating to germans that it broke the air of invincibility around them and gave morale to both allies and the french resistance.
its time for you to say 'viva la resistance !'. for you are already under occupation in america.
Read radical news here
It's not really an effective "retaliation" - a site taken down by physical raids and arrests is not just offline, it's gone and all the content is gone. These (probably) DOS attacks just cause downtime and nothing is really lost except face.. So now what? DoJ etc log some service calls with providers, reset a few things and it's back like nothing happened where MegaUpload is offline until some new person decides to setup shop. Result = nothing good, BAU, *sad face*
Thou Shalt Ignite That Which Burns.
As much as I want to see a vigilante internet group of elite white-hat hackers send a potent message, a DDoS is hardly effective. It grabs a headline or two, but in the end, does nothing.
Too bad l0pht/CDC went legit.
*sigh*
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Yes, taking down sharing sites is bad. But vigilante attacks at a time when the government is already itching to censor the internet are fucking silly. It's like protesting the TSA by putting bombs in your luggage.
..but despite that, I'll be a bit less politically correct and give a little sign of appreciation: good targets, guys. MPAA, RIAA and the greatest copyrights troll of all, Universal. Good selection.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Now it's a party. Too bad they forgot to invite Sony...
"Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
not to put a damper on things, but how does this really hurt any of these groups? I might be able to buy something on Universal Music, but I'm not very likely too. The other sites are just business portals. All Anonymous really did was mildly inconvenience some low level employees trying to log into their corporate intranet. Meanwhile MegaUpload's still down and the owner's still facing criminal charges and decades in prison...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
While the SOPA protest yesterday was effective, today's action by the DoJ was basically a big "fuck you" to due process and working within the system.
So fine, you want a war, you got one. For every site they take down, we need to take down 5 or 10, and not just for one day, for as long as is possible.
The time to be peaceful and work within the system is obviously over. Occupy Wall Street was nowhere near as effective as Arab Spring, and that's because we were not throwing Molotov Cocktails and shooting cops.
Ok, we got the message. No matter how hard we try and work within the system, you will CHANGE the system to be to our disadvantage.
So fuck you.
Now it's war, complete with the cocktails and shootings, until things really do change.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
What the hell, Anonymous? What damage does hacking DoJ or the RIAA/MPA sites?
Hack iTunes, hack Netflix, hack pages that offer services whose money goes to RIAA pockets. If you shut down a page that offers nothing, what you get is nothing. (except being charged for (pretty much) terrorism without causing any significant damage to the people you want to attack).
Anonymous should damage their SOURCES OF REVENUE, not their useless face sites.
How about arguing that the law can crack down on megaupload just fine shows the lack of necessity for SOPA and PIPA?
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
Good going, Anonymous. Way to go, way to justify the surveillance-state.
Taking down a couple websites temporarily? You're fucking kidding, right?
All it justifies is punishment against those who carried out the attacks. Will the government crack down because of this? Maybe, but that's taking the bait that has been set out for them. Don't you get it, that's the whole point -- it's like a little kid daring him parent to hit him. Oh, you may want to... But you better not do it.
I think it's time to start going after the industry lobbyists individually, with all the legal and bureaucratic brutality that's been so effective for the Scientologists.
I'm not talking about killing anyone or violating the law in any way, but engaging the system to make the lives of individual lobbyists as hellish and unlivable as possible.
Nobody goes after the CoS anymore. Not in any way that would actually be a threat to them. Why not take a page from a book that actually worked, for once?
I am absolutely pissed that the U.S. government has the audacity to do something like this. I am not a cracker, nor am I going to take any action that is illegal in my country. However, I do plan on taking action, and I encourage you all to do the same. Call your MP or whoever the government official is in your area, pester the hell out of them with your worries and complaints. Do the same to whoever is in charge of foreign affairs through the appropriate channels. This cannot continue.
Right now I view the U.S. as a mix between China and the terrorists of Alcida. If you are a U.S. citizen, please do whatever you can to stop the madness in your government. If this keeps up, your government may start WW3 with itself in the place of the axis of evil.
I appreciate Anonymous for going after who they perceive to be wronging people, but I can't really respect them because they're inconsistent. They lost my respect when they chickened out after they threatened to go after the drug gangs in northern Mexico.
Sure, Anonymous - standing up over digital rights is noble, but that's easy when the only threat to you is a lawyer. When human lives are on the line, however, and you have a chance to make a REAL difference in the world with something more web site rights, and show some real value to society, you - and a lot of your reputation, IMO - disappeared.
It was the one case where your group's name really fit your moves...
".. They were compliant with the DMCA, from what I understand.."
Apparently not, try ars technica for what these scum were really up to
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/why-the-feds-smashed-megaupload.ars
Will they keep wearing the masks on which a license fee is probably paid to a SOPA/PIPA backer? Haven't they seen the irony in this since they started using them?
Good luck sometimes arrives disguised as bad
I see a lot of venting and ranting, but not a lot of info about what actually has or has not happened. No one seems to have noticed some of these Web sites are up and running.
copyright.gov is up
DOJ is up
RIAA seems to be down
MPAA is up
UMG is down
BMI is down
OK, now that we've got those facts sorted out, the next question is who cares?
This isn't like a DDOS attack against Amazon or Google. None of these organizations, government or otherwise, depend on their Web sites to transact business. Copyright.gov is an informational resource that contains reference material you can find in many other places. No one cares if it's down. Did you even know it existed before it allegedly went down? Justice.gov exists to inform the people about what the department is doing. That's it. If Anonymous wants to raise awareness about the DOJ's activities, taking their site down has the opposite effect, and does not hurt the DOJ. When was the last time you visited the MPAA or RIAA site? Is that where you're going to look to decide what movie you want to see tomorrow, or what music you're going to buy on iTunes? And UMG and BMI's businesses don't depend on their Web sites... their music is marketed and sold elsewhere.
We've known for about 12 years now that it's really not that hard in the scheme of things to DDOS even the biggest sites on the Web. Remember the shocking 3-hour attack on Yahoo in Feb 2000? The prevailing thought then was, "If they can shut down Yahoo, they can shut down anybody." This was a legitimate concern because with its site down, Yahoo's business does not exist. But these attacks are being directed at sites where it really doesn't matter. All it does it generate a scary-sounding news headline. Some of Anonymous's other antics have some real world implications for their targets... this does not.
Welcome to the Reichstad.
Got a light?
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
If it were physically possible to "picket" an Internet site (something which is LEGAL in the physical world), we'd be doing it. But it isn't, so... what do we do? The goal is to change minds which means influencing people who do NOT already agree with you, or who may not even be aware of what you're fighting for.
What's your suggestion? Door-to-door petitioning? Good idea, here's the problem. There are 350 something million people in this country. Can you reach them all with people on the street? Yes, but how long does it take? Compare that to the ability of massive media companies to reach those same people, whenever they want however often they want, with whatever MESSAGE they want. TV and radio, these are basically enormous PA systems that belong to private parties, who have huge advantage over any individual, hell even any collective of individuals, in terms of making people hear a message. Oh, and Congress seems to really like these guys too.
Even though there are millions of us and only a few of them, we can't get the message out as effectively. The Internet is the only thing that promises to change that. Don't you understand? The Internet changes the way power and control flow through the social relationships on this planet. This has got to be the most terrifying thing ever to any major power. Seriously, just look at the role of social media in the worldwide revolutions over the past year.
The US government is shitting bricks that something like that could happen here. So what happens? Out of nowhere come SOPA and PIPA, bills which threaten to shut down precisely the same web sites which are used for this freely flowing communication: sites where users can post unreviewed content in real time. Sites like Facebook. Twitter. Slashdot.
Need I even continue writing this damn post? Isn't it clear that what we want to say is MORE IMPORTANT than what the RIAA and MPAA have to say? No really, you stand there and tell me with a straight face that what has happened to copyright and intellectual property in this country in the last 30 years is a good thing.
The Internet is our power right now. We simply can't allow it to be manipulated by corporate and political interests. If we use it right, we might just be able to come up with a system of government that makes the world better.
The takedown of MegaUpload the day after the SOPA/PIPA blackout was a message from the powers that be, have no doubt about it. What you are seeing is the reaction of angry people to a situation they feel no control over. You should just be thankful it isn't violent.
"What law was MegaUpload breaking?"
The indictment is quite specific, and not a difficult read. I wonder how many of the people who are already in full protest mode have read it?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204616504577171180266957116.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
This time, we are not fighting the man, the elite, the rich. We are fighting U2, the media, the free press. The press has a role in democracy as the watcher of the entire political system BUT this only worked when newspapers were separate enough and not forced to report on issues that go against their own interests.
In Holland, commercial radio licenses are up for auction to the highest bidder. Commercial radio presenters always very quick to bitch about other people going on strike saw no issue with taking the radio waves hostage to protest a new auction round that might jeopardize their own million euro jobs. Bye bye fair and balanced reporting, hello self interest.
The traditional newspaper is already dead, most are now part of vast media empires and that means that the press when reporting on media is reporting about it self. You wouldn't expect a newspaper owned by the Ford company to report fairly on cars would you? Then how can you expect newspapers owned by Murdoch to report fairly on media affairs? The BBC has been called out for unfair media practices and conveniently, the BBC itself completely failed to report on this, how odd.
When the likes of Bono from U2 call out the US on food aid, or make a song about British war crimes in Ireland, that is as expected but do you hear him about a certain 2 letter band performing in South Africa during the apartheid? Do you see media thriving on interviews from the band, reporting on it?
For the free press to work as part of the checks and balances of our system, the free press needs not to be just free from government control but from any form of control, including its share holders. But that hasn't been the case for a long time.
Take Futurama, it has done an episode that could have been payed for by the MPAA but it wasn't. It didn't need to pay for it since the two are rubbing the same belly, a totally one sides presentation of copyright because the person doing the telling has both the means to tell it and the motivation to tell it. What TV producer is going to present a balanced approach to copyright when their salary so clearly comes from one side of the story?
---
An example that might require some abstract thinking:
Do you trust the "Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences" to honestly award the oscars based on the quality of the movies submitted? Well, you might or might not but they are after all industry experts or at least members of the industry.
BUT even if you accept the Oscars are unbiased, do you expect these same people to give an unbiased answer to the following: "How important are movies to our civilization"...
THINK really hard about that question. It is is asking a surgeon if an operation is the right medical procedure to cure something. A make up retailer on whether women need to wear make-up. A car dealer on how important it is to own a car.
A fundemental question that we need to answer when dealing with copyright is whether we need the content that needs copyright. No commercial musician, tv producer, movie maker or writer is going to say "no, for thousands of years content/art has been produced without copyright so we don't need it even if it means I no longer can earn a living with it because art will survive through people who do it for fun, not for the money".
Even if the discussion comes up in the media, the premise that we NEED commercially produced art, is not up for discussion.
Does this matter?
The car industry had to be called out in the past on cars being unsafe. This only was possible because there were people outside the industry with a hearable voice who dared to pose the concept that cars did not have to be dead traps. That it was possible to work towards a goal of zero car fatalities. How would the move to safer cars have gone IF the entire discussion had only been done by people who had taken it for granted that each model would kill a few dozen people as an unchangeable fixed constant?
It is becoming clear that the patent and copyright
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I don't know what you perceive of me, but if asked to not buy something, I am more than happy to oblige. Specially because I have no money to spare, and I have no concept of "brand loyalty". They be loyal to ME first, and later we'll see if I am loyal to THEM.
We aren't talking bank of america (read: influences people's money, hence it's maximum priority) we are talking MEDIA like videogames, music and movies. How can you dare calling me apathetic on something that is not even required for day-to-day survival? I am apathetic, but about them and their products, that's where I am apathetic. Thus, they don't see a penny from me, I won't recommend their products to anyone, and I won't even care about their releases, I don't even download them, because they suck. I not only have more money for survival, but I am not wasting my time with their inane superhero movies, cookie-cutter FPSs and heavily filtered pop singers. I don't even pirate their garbage, it's not worth it. Sure, I might miss out on one or two good things, but it's media, I don't need media other than to kill time
I can teach you a thing or two about boycotting those idiots. And I still believe boycotts, for media, do not work. Check the sales of the DRM-filled games that everyone calls boycott on, but they still sell millions every time. How do you call that other than "boycott not working"?
As long as people feels the need to purchase the lastest movie/album/game, boycotts will fail. Thing is, I don't know there that "need" comes from, because in the latest years, media releases are just excuses to test out new content blockers/DRM instead of releasing new content.
Fucking kids, now get off my damn lawn.
It doesn't matter how immature Anonymous is being, nor how their efforts are non-productive or even counter-productive. None of that matters to them because it is simply human nature to strike when angered.
Arrest every single member of Anonymous, and another group will spring up to do the same thing. This is because their behavior is a direct consequence of their situation: real human beings perceive that they are the victims of harmful and unjust laws. So, they will do what history has demonstrated again-and-again to be human nature: strike the oppressor.
This response was entirely predictable. And as the government passes even more restrictive laws, and becomes even more draconian in their enforcement, more and more people will get pissed off and will fight back.
Some will fight back through proper political channels. Most feel too politically disempowered for that, so they will fight back more directly. More enforcement will only add fuel to this fire.
Unless the authorities capitulate, things will only get worse. Many innocent people will get caught in the middle and harmed, but that won't inhibit the "revolutionaries" for a second. They will fight until they are satisfied. Count on it.
All of this has happened before and this will all happen again. Those who remember history are doomed to watch it be repeated.
Ha, I like the part where they show that Megaupload aka "The Mega Conspiracy's" diligent removal of child porn is evidence that it had the capability to remove all copyrighted material. Clearly Megaupload's biggest failure was not leaving more pictures of naked kiddies up for the feds!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The indictment appears to be the product of someone with a rich fantasy life.
In reality, I rather suspect the move is really a reaction to MegaUploads current lawsuit against Universal. That suit was shaping up to be quite damaging to Universal, but now with MegaUploads assets seized, they are no longer in a position to pursue it. How convenient.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
Given the level of momentum turning toward the Big Brother state, there may not be that many "mature" political channels left. In case everyone missed it, they found a new weapon against "peaceful protest" - ridicule.
Occupy Wall Street was the first/best civil protest we've had in *decades*! The result? The media planted a few Laugh Off stories about some of the "Boys Will Be Boys" activities going on the sidelines and then the cops busted it all up, and we didn't have a followup. That's because they quietly destroyed B.W.B.B. those same decades ago, with the final lock as a nifty side effect of the 9-11 theme. "Oh look, ten thousand protesters aren't as orderly as school children or cowering workers!" Uh... protesters are ... angry, that' the definition, right?
The interesting thing is Slashdot has chosen to let the trolls post come ill or shill, because it's part of Taco's original foresight to the abuses of over-modding TOS policies now creeping everywhere else. The mod system could use a couple more finesses, but it's *us* modding each other, not the editors. That's starting to become a Meta-Experiment in the current climate.
I'm quite lenient with my mod scores - I only mod down the absolute lowest of the vulgar offtopic junk, or the "random word generator" posts, or the shock pics. I stay out of the "Shill - Anti-Shill" wars.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
The UPSIDE of this media orchestrated ridicule is that more and more people don't think the Media is legitimate -- other than of course fans of Fox News who think CNN is somehow "Liberal" because it's less obviously for pinheads.
When I hear from OWS and other groups like them -- they sound legitimate. Legitimacy is becoming more and more a social media networking experiment -- echoing the "small town" of long ago. I'm sure that's why Facebook is so important -- but I'd caution anyone trying to manipulate public opinion here too; In order for people to LISTEN, they need to get value from the exchange. If people don't have jobs, justice, or opportunity -- you cannot tell them that their friend's sister said "this is the best of all possible worlds." The skunk gets defriended pretty quickly.
The moment for me where the Media became the annoying drunken uncle was when Howard Dean's innocuous "Yeehaw" was sampled and broadcast on almost every TV station about 2000 times per channel for two weeks. The normal staid and thoughtful Dean was instantly painted as a kook.
The DOWNSIDE of the "friendly network news" system is the creation of Bubble realities. IF you are an intelligent design scientist with part time membership in a militia and your greatest fear is Canadians crossing the border to steal our jobs -- there is likely a group of like-minded individuals ready to listen to your sage echo of their own thoughts.
>> Americans have been used and abused by commercial messages and our government has been bought and sold, and the people who "buy into it" are going to be in the minority soon. It's got to be disappointing that after Clear Channel got 80% of the radio stations and News Corp built their empire, they've got a majority stake in that annoying buzzing sound we tune out.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"