Music Industry Site Taken Down By ‘Anonymous’

Internet vigilante group Anonymous has taken down the website of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) as revenge for the legal action against The Pirate Bay

Anonymous, an online anti-censorship group, has launched a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack on the IFPI after three founders of The Pirate Bay, one of the world’s biggest free file-sharing websites, lost their appeals in a copyright infringement case.

The Swedish Court of Appeals reduced their jail term of one year to between four and ten months. However, their collective fine was raised from £3 million to £4.1 million.

In its statement, Anonymous labelled the verdict “one of the most heinous of crimes against freedom” and vowed to correct what it believed was injustice.

“We will continue our fight against these outdated laws. We will continue to attack websites of those who are a danger to freedom on the Internet. We will continue to attack those who embrace censorship.”

Anonymous launches Operation Payback campaign

Soon after the verdict, the IFPI’s websites encountered service interruptions. Both the ifpi.org and ifpi.se sites became largely unavailable.

The interruptions are linked to Anonymous’ DDoS attack and its Operation: Payback campaign, where activists use the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) to flood the site with useless traffic.

They target the websites of big entertainment companies, particularly Warner Brothers, MGM, Universal and Sony BMG, which are among the largest organisations represented by the IFPI.

Anonymous claimed these corporations have levied millions of pounds in damages against innocent people. It also vowed to cause “equivalent losses in downtime, corrupt data and focused disruption of the distribution of their media.”

Meanwhile, Frances Moore, CEO of the IFPI, welcomed the verdict. He said the legal decision has proved the illegality of The Pirate Bay and the seriousness of the crimes it has committed.

“It is now time for The Pirate Bay, whose operators have twice been convicted in court, to close. We now look to governments and ISPs to take note of this judgment, do the responsible thing and take the necessary steps to get The Pirate Bay shut down.”

Recently,  Anonymous declared Warner Brothers its next target. The group is planning to launch another DDoS attack on the entertainment site on 1 December at 6pm GMT.