Anonymous Revives Operation Payback, Targets Record Labels

Anonymous has resumed its DDoS campaign against the recording industry by targeting the record labels represented by RIAA in the LimeWire case.

Last fall a judge issued a permanent injunction effectively terminating the development of LimeWire, one of the oldest P2P file sharing applications around.

The ruling came as a result of a complaint filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against its developer, Lime Wire LLC, for facilitating copyright infringement through the software.

The trade association has recently filed for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per song. Considering the complaint specifies 11,000 infringed works of music, the total sum can reach $75 trillion.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood rejected the claim calling it absurd, but RIAA's intention to ask for more than the entire world's early GDP from a single company that's already out of business, has angered the Anonymous collective.

Known for their strong views against copyright and their dedication for freedom of information, Anonymous decided to resume its previous suspended Operation Payback campaign.

Operation Payback was represented by a two-month long series of DDoS attacks against US and international entertainment industry trade associations, anti-piracy groups and even government agencies that deal with copyright enforcement.

The campaign was indirectly put on hold when the group took up the WikiLeaks cause and later when it decided to support the pro-democracy protesters in Arab countries.

It seems that Operation Payback is back in full force. It started last week with attacks against RIAA and now it moved towards targeting record labels directly.

"In arguing that Limewire should be eligible for damages on every individual download, the studios were effectively arguing that Limewire owed it more money than the entire record industry has made since Edison invented the phonograph in 1877," Anonymous said in a statement.

The targets are the plaintiffs named in the RIAA vs Lime Wire lawsuit, namely Arista Music (BMG Music), Arista Records, Atlantic Recording Corporation, Capitol Records, Elektra Entertainment Group, Interscope Records, Laface Records, Motown Record Company, Priority Record, UMG Recordings, Virgin Records America, Warner Bros. Records.