(Crossposted from The Free Speech Zone)
Over the last 36 hours or so, the ‘Anonymous’ masses and many unaffiliated sympathizers joined forces to attack the MPAA’s website. Continuing with ‘Operation Payback’, today an attack will be launched on the RIAA. The ultimate in decentralized protests will go ahead and there’s not a lawyer or police force in the world who can do anything about it. Is this the protest of the future?
Short answer? Yes.
I noticed the shift to this form of protest almost immediately a few years ago and in order to make sure there were activists available anytime they wanted to get a bit sexier then Scientology, I figured i’d be there to get this shit cooking being a fan since the tender age of 14. Oh Newgrounds, is there no cherry you haven’t popped by at least that age?
I mean, it makes sense in a way because 4chan, anonymous, b, and others like it were started around the time that kids from my generation were in their teens thus would be a part of such a group at one time or another. The signs of collective action under a “security culture”, such as anonymity and freedom of speech on the internet, are there and one doesn’t have to be a Black Bloc junkie in order to get the swing of things. All one needs is a fucked up and warped sense of humor to get around in that group…possibly the only pre-requisite needed.
It’s an inside joke, a tongue-in-cheek culture, a group that flew under the radar for years as its “dick and fart” charm warmed itself into the heart of all our inner 14 year olds. Everyone remains anonymous and let the fun commence! Sound familiar? ;-). And now, coming out of online mental adolescence, it starts to realize that its tactics for obscure self-righteous attack (sometimes justified as just a lulz pursuit) can now be used for organized action against the powerful forces that have hunted our kind for nearly a decade.
The RIAA and MPAA have gone as far as to threaten 12 year olds with lawsuits in order to scare everyone into fearing their online activity when downloading torrents. It’s an exemplary act repeated over and over with the same psychology as Russian Roulette that lets you know that 5 out of 6 pulls of the trigger means you may get away with it a few times, but there’s always that one chance it’s the chamber with a bullet in it.
This, like I said, has been going on for nearly a decade.
People are sick of it and now they’re taking action, but this time it’s online instead of in the streets.
I hardly talk about my Pirate Party activities because I hate seeming as if i’m proselytizing for a political party while people possibly fear that speaking against a strong belief of an Admin at a blog will get you on their bad side and possibly “disappeared” from it. I assure you that bashing my beliefs is fine and in fact encouraged by me for you to do if there’s a “con” about our group that you feel needs voicing. Or fuck, even if you just feel like pissing me off you can do it without fear of repercussions, although i’m sure my demeanor has suggested I just simply couldn’t give a fuck what you think about me or anything i’m a part of.
That aside, the Pirate Party now has to issue a press release on the issue that will be up for a vote at this weeks meeting, and I gotta tell ya, it’s going to be tough for me to hold my tongue but the political party itself can’t obviously condone such activities. It’ll get the attention and wording it deserves though, believe that.
Next stop looks like the RIAA for these folks and I can’t blame them. You can only fuck with people for so long before they “push back” and 10 years is more than enough time to warrant this response.
We’re talking about new gen and old gen having their embedded subconscious memories triggered to spark a collective action on “call to arms” such as these. It’s fairly simple to execute a DoS attack and very effective too.
And now, as a true creature of habit, they went after the RIAA:
Led by users from the 4Chan image boards, a massive DDoS attack starting Friday and continuing into Saturday took down the websites of both the MPAA and AiPlex Software, which had been executing DDoS attacks of its own on BitTorrent sites such as The Pirate Bay. The MPAA site is up again, but that’s because the attackers have moved on to the RIAA.The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) both obviously have a lot invested in keeping their content off of BitTorrent and other P2P networks. In response to the DDoS attacks on torrent sites, 4Chan has organized this campaign, called “Operation Payback.”
Never forgive.
An Indian firm has blithely admitted carrying out DDoS attacks on illegal torrent websites on behalf of movie companies including 20th Century Fox.Girish Kumar, managing director of Aiplex Software, said he’s hired by the studios to trawl the internet in the days following a movie’s release. Using software which searches for relevant keywords, Aiplex looks for sites hosting illegally pirated copies. The firm then delivers copyright takedown notices to the sites’ owners.
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someone’s songs or software some sort of political principle?