Anonymous turns ire on Japan after anti-piracy law passes
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It was only a matter of time – hacktivist group Anonymous has taken aim at the web sites of political parties and government departments in Japan in retaliation for a tough new anti-piracy bill passed last week.
The update to the Copyright Law was brought about after heavy lobbying by a content industry dismayed that illegal file sharing continues in Japan despite the uploading of pirated music and video already carrying a maximum jail sentence of ten years.
Now there is yet another legal deterrent in the country. Under the terms of the revised Copyright Law, illegal file sharing could land the perpetrator with a maximum of two years in prison and/or a fine of up to ¥2 million (£15,982). Anonymous announced OpJapan via a new Twitter account and a press release on its AnonPR site:
Japan, home to some of the greatest technological innovations throughout history has now decided to go down the path as well and cave into the pressures of the content industry to combat piracy and copyright infringement.
We at Anonymous believe strongly that this will result in scores of unnecessary prison sentences to numerous innocent citizens while doing little to solve the underlying problem of legitimate copyright infringement.
In classic Anonymous style, the group has launched its low orbit ION cannons at the web sites of various institutions it blames for passing the new law, including the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Supreme Court of Japan.
At the time of writing only the Supreme Court had its site back up and running but Anonymous tweeted this morning that there will be more DDoS-ing today. ®
COMMENTS
A maximum jail sentence of ten years...
So let me get this, in Japan, uploading illegal content is just as serious a crime as say manslaughter.
This world is seriously fucked up...
Copyright is little more than a diseased remnant of an earlier age. Piracy is now ubiquitous, you can find stories of copyright groups themselves committing it (BREIN in the Netherlands is one that I remember, though don't quote me on that).
It's simply not possible to protect one's "intellectual property" on the internet, at least not using the out-dated and moronic methods that copyright groups are applying. Whether this is ethically right or wrong or whatever shouldn't even be a discussion any more, we had that years ago, and regardless of the outcome, this has happened, and the clock can't be turned back.
Instead, we should be having a serious discussion on why their model of profit hasn't changed, and whether law enforcement should continue to act as bounty hunters for copyright groups (in any country) instead of solving actual real crimes wot with violence and that.
Anonymous might be ineffectual and often plain stupid, but props to them for actually DOING something; they, at least, don't enjoy being shafted by corporations anywhere.
More realistic punishment
When they catch these people they should just make them do community service for 6 months, and pay for whatever it turns out they stole tripled.
Make the time fit the crime for god sakes. You don't even get 10 years for murder half the time.
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