Ongoing denial of service attacks spearheaded by Anonymous have knocked out the website of the Ministry of Sound, as well those of its payment provider and solicitors, Gallant Macmillian.

Macmillan is attempting to identify and sue individuals who allegedly uploaded music from the Ministry of Sound's music catalogue. Slyckr reports that the attacks against the MoS and Associated website started on Sunday evening (UK time).

The sites remain unavailable at the time of writing on Monday morning.

Its legal action marked the Ministry of Sound as a candidate for attacks launched by the loosely affiliated Anonymous collective against the entertainment business and, in particular, organisations that harass alleged file-sharers. Operation Payback: is a bitch, which began two weeks ago, has already floored the websites of the MPAA, RIAA and ACS:Law.

A scorecard on these various attacks, detailing site downtimes, along with an interview with a member of Anonymous, can be found in a blog post by Panda Security here.

Hamfisted attempts to restore ACS:Law's website following the attack resulted in the publication of its email archives, allowing activists and journalists to pick through its business plans and tactics. ACS:Law's Andrew Crossley's dismissive remarks about the original assault in an interview with El Reg prompted the denizens of 4Chan to redouble their attack on the site, triggering a series of events that exposed the hugely embarrassing private email archive to world+dog. ®