Hackers and pirates take down MPAA site in protest

This weekend, pirates, hackers and otherwise bored kids on 4chan took down the websites for the MPAA and anti-piracy corporation AiPlex in a series of DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks that left the sites down for over 18 hours. After doing a good deed by tracking down the girl responsible for throwing puppies in a river, why would they turn their considerable power on the MPAA? Did they really hate RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE that much?

In its efforts to curb online piracy of movies, the MPAA hired AiPlex, self-described as “the only Net Vigilance company across the Globe thus far to provide unprecedented services on Internet based piracies.” What exactly does that mean? It seems they take a rather guerrilla approach to fighting piracy. Instead of fighting crime through, you know, legal channels, AiPlex uses DDoS attacks to take down sites suspected of peer-to-peer file sharing of pirated materials (even if the site hasn’t actually been hosting any pirated material).

So the users of 4chan mobilized over the weekend with the intent on returning the DDoS favor. Their fun was shortlived though when the AiPlex site was taken down a little easier than expected. So what to do when you’ve got an entire army of people eager for a fight but no actual fight? Well they took their beef over to the MPAA website, who’s suspected of hiring AiPlex to initiate the DDoS attacks on the torrent sites.

Both MPAA and AiPlex are back online today as are all the torrent sites. So really, what was accomplished. Pirating movies is not a cool thing; it’s stealing glorified to look cool and rebellious. But DDoS attacks are also not cool (and potentially illegal).

Now’s when I ask YOU to play Judge Judy. Who do you side with in this matter? Do you think the pirates should just stop pirating stolen material and those who do be punished accordingly? Do you think it’s OK for the MPAA, RIAA and companies like AiPlex to use “by any means necessary” to stop piracy? Have YOU ever pirated anything? Strike back below!