Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Anonymous 'declares war' on Orlando

The hacker group Anonymous has taken down a US tourism website in Orlando, Florida as a protest against the arrests of people handing out food to the city's homeless.

Anonymous said the attack on orlandofloridaguide.com was retaliation for the arrest of members of the group Food not Bombs.

The website, which is not owned by the city, went offline for part of Tuesday.

Anonymous rose to prominence by hacking the sites of major corporations.

Anonymous is often seen as a political collective and has pledged to take action against those its members view as acting improperly.

They have been linked to several high-profile web attacks, including several on Sony websites as well as the Church of Scientology.

'Balance of needs'

Anonymous has warned that more attacks could follow as part of what it has dubbed "Operation Orlando".

In a news release, the hacker group promised to carry out a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) on a separate Orlando-related website every day until the arrests come to an end, choosing orlandofloridaguide.com as its first target.

The collective also said it will email millions of people across the world asking them to boycott the destination.

"This is a declaration of war," said Anonymous, describing Operation Orlando.

"Anonymous will now begin a massive campaign against you and your city web assets," it added in a message directed at Orlando officials.

But orlandofloridaguide.com, which went offline for several hours on Tuesday, has no affiliation to the city, an Orlando spokesperson told the BBC.

"I don't know what the hackers' intentions are, but from the city's standpoint, we're just trying to balance everyone's needs," the spokesperson said.

'Difficult position'

The row between the city of Orlando and the non-profit organisation Food Not Bombs started when the group began feeding homeless people in a park in the city's downtown.

They did not obtain a permit to do so, a move which is required by law in Orlando.

Since then members of Food Not Bombs, including the group's president, Keith Mchenry, have been arrested several times in the past month for handing out meals.

"We're in a difficult position, and we've tried everything," the Orlando spokesperson said.

"If Food Not Bombs continues to violate the ordinance, they will be subject to the consequences of violating it, which is arrest."

Meanwhile, Food Not Bombs has said it has no affiliation with the Anonymous hacker group.

Spanish police arrested three suspected members of the Anonymous group earlier this month.



Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Anti-piracy action seeks BT block

Film-makers are going to court in a bid to block access to a site that hosts pirated versions of popular movies.

In a UK legal first, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) has applied for an injunction forcing BT to cut off access for its customers to Newzbin.

The MPA, the industry body for a number of movie studios, said it was targeting BT first as the largest internet service provider in the UK.

BT confirmed it would be in court later but did not make any further comment.

The MPA wants BT to block Newzbin with the same system that stops access to sites hosting child sex abuse images.

The members-only website aggregates a large amount of the illegally copied material found on Usenet discussion forums.

The MPA is the international arm of the Motion Picture Association of America - the industry body representing movie studios such as Warner, Sony, Fox, Disney and Paramount.

"Start Quote

Newzbin has no regard for UK law and it is unacceptable that it continues to infringe copyright on a massive and commercial scale when it has been ordered to stop by the High Court"

End Quote Chris Marcich MPA European president

It brought its action against BT because, as well as being the largest ISP in the UK with more than 5.6 million customers, BT supplies the site-blocking system known as Cleanfeed to many other big UK ISPs.

Success in the courts may mean the blocking spreads to those other operators.

The MPA began its legal action against UK-operated Newzbin in 2010, which resulted in the High Court telling the site to remove material it hosted that infringed copyright.

Newzbin went into administration soon after but its assets, including web domains, were sold to new owners and a fresh version of the site has popped up operating out of the Seychelles.

"Newzbin has no regard for UK law and it is unacceptable that it continues to infringe copyright on a massive and commercial scale when it has been ordered to stop by the High Court," said Chris Marcich, European president of the MPA, in a statement.

"We have explored every route to get Newzbin to take down the infringing material and are left with no option but to challenge this in the courts."

Court-imposed blocks have been used widely throughout Europe but a success for the MPA would mark the first time the tactic has worked in the UK.

The UK's Digital Economy Act does require ISPs to help rights holders identify users who may have downloaded music, software and videos illegally. However, it stops short of giving rights holders legal powers to pursue alleged pirates.

In a statement BT would confirm only that it would be appearing in court on Tuesday "following an application for an injunction by members of the MPA".

The Internet Service Providers Association said it would not comment until the court had made its decision.



Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials