Hours after the U.S. government arrested the leaders of and shut down MEGAUPLOAD.COM, a popular hub for illegal file sharing, "hacktivist" collective ANONYMOUS counter-attacked by shutting down the websites to the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP, the RIAA, the MPAA and among many other targets, possibly including the WHITE HOUSE.

According to CNN.COM, "ANONYMOUS' favorite weapon for these attacks is what's called a 'distributed denial of service' (DDoS) attack, which directs a flood of traffic to a website and temporarily crashes it by overwhelming its servers. It doesn't actually involve any hacking or security breaches." An Anonymous representative said that 5,635 people used a networking tool called a "low orbit ion cannon" (LOIC), a software tool that aims a massive flood of traffic at a targeted site.

A tweet reprinted in CNETNEWS.COM claimed that with the shutdown of the RIAA website, 10 sites were effectively shut down in 20 minutes. Shortly before the outage, seven people were indicted and four were taken into custody on online piracy charges, including MEGAUPLOAD Founder KIM DOTCOM, a.k.a. KIM SCHMITZ. The four were arrested in AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, at the request of the U.S. Other individuals indicted are citizens of NEW ZEALAND, GERMANY, SLOVAKIA and THE NETHERLANDS. However, MEGAUPLOAD has servers in ASHBURN, VIRGINIA and WASHINGTON D.C., which prompted DOJ involvement.

Anonymous operative BARRETT BROWN admitted to RT that the hacking was in retaliation for MEGAUPLOAD, adding that "more is coming," including a joint effort with others to "damage campaign raising abilities of remaining Democrats who support SOPA.

IN OUR OPINION:I hate to state the obvious but when it comes to the internet the war is only beginning. We have created a monster that now has alife of it's own. It is time that the industries and governent realize that the existing models of how things are done have to change and change drastically. The carriage and whip era disappeared a long time ago and the lawmakers pushed by industry are still living in it. The internet is not business as usual. The people will fight back because they can do so without some risks and they do not want to be treated like the older generation were. They can fight back and mobilize resources that were unheard of before. It is tie that the industry tried to discover new models of how to deal with the population which has been trained by the industry themselves to want more...more knowledge, more and easier access to knowledge and they want more of what they could never possibly afford. We have been conditioned to want all the new gadgets out there. We have been subjected to hours on end of commercials telling us that we have to listen to this music or see this movie. This has been done to us like never before in history. People now want more stuff then they could possible use, read listen to or view. They have been programmed to want and want and want but they can not afford this ravinous urge to want, have and possess. So they go to other venues to get this corporate drug they have been weened on since birth. They are a new generation who want all and they will fight for it.

Hollywood and the music industry continually say that they are losing billions, but are they really? Most of this so called loss is only in they illusions. If people are viewing pirated movies or listening to pirated music it is only because they want what they can't afford. The industry would not get these billions they think they are lossing because the people don't have those billions to give them. They are living a self induced lie. Piracy has not stopped movie going and piracy has not stopped music sales. It has just given those who can't afford it to get what others can afford. If hollywood wants more money from those that can't afford it just look at Apples success. They have to go cheap. I go to a movie once or twice a week and each time I spent around $30 but I realize that with all my bills and taxes rising and my pay dropping that I can not maintain this little pleasure of mine. I have the choices of stealing it or waiting for it to arrive on regular television and I know lots who will not steal it but they will wait like I do for it to come to television. So Hollywood the $1,560 dollars I spent now will not go to you if I stop this movie going guilty pleasure. If 20 million people did the same thing you would not get the $312 million that would normally come from them, so explain how you lost that money if they stop going because they would rather have food, clothes and a roof over their heads. You won't be able to explain because your only answer will be I don't care about people's basic needs I only care about my needs. The answer is not in trying to punish people for wanting something you told them they should have it comes down to being willing to accept less money to allow people to pay for what they want to see or listen to, but, you wn't because even you have been programmed over the decades to want more than you need or can afford. How do you legislate greed and want? If you put everyone in jail you sure as hell wna't get their money then. if you scare people witht the treat of going to jail and they stop pirating , you still won't get their money, Either way everyone loses... except you have poured millions into movies that no one can afford to see or are in jail and can't go out to see. Time to rethink your strategies and not make enemies of your audience.