I FOUND A QUARTER

SOMETHING BIG IS GOING DOWN

The Federal Bureau of Investigation moved against a group of suspected online pirates Thursday, targeting the popular file-sharing website megaupload.com a day after Washington lawmakers were besieged by complaints about legislation designed to crack down on the online sharing of pirated copies of music, movies and other material, people familiar with the matter said.

Investigators said there was no connection between arrests in their two-year investigation and the political firestorm that erupted this week over a pending vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act.

This is a big deal, and even if it’s not related to SOPA, the timing certainly does a lot to put it on the minds of those worried about the law.

Now it looks like Anonymous has retaliated by shutting down websites to the Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the U.S. Copyright Office. This could be the start of an actual virtual skirmish. Anon is known to be inherently unforgiving and unrelenting, while governments tend to be equally steadfast. This pretty much puts the rest of us in a rock-and-a-hard-place kind of situation. I guess we’ll see how it plays out…

Source for Megaupload shutdown / Source for Anon retaliation

1/20/2012 edit:

SOPA and PIPA have both been postponed, pending revision. It’s a start, if anything. Source.

Source: shortformblog