Following a call to arms yesterday, the masses inhabiting the anonymous 4chan boards have carried out a huge assault on a pair of anti-piracy enemies. The website of Aiplex Software, the anti-piracy outfit which has been DDoSing torrent sites recently, is currently down having been DDoS'd. They are joined in the Internet wasteland by the MPAA's website, also currently under huge and sustained attack.

Don’t mess with the Internet they say. Well, actually stronger terms than that are often used, but the end result is the same. When people get organized on the Internet, very strange and powerful things can happen and in few places can this be more true than on the 4chan message boards.

Sometimes things need sorting out, and what better way than getting hundreds of thousands of anonymous users of this notorious message board to work together to achieve it. If they’re not trying to bring down Scientology, they’re teaching foul-mouthed pre-teen girls a lesson or using their combined forces to destroy the lives of stupid bankers who think it’s ‘funny’ to throw cats in the trash.

Yesterday two new targets hit the radars of ‘Anonymous’, the faceless and powerful hordes who carry out 4chan attacks. The beauty is that anyone can join in the action, 4chan ‘membership’ is not even required. People wishing to participate can simply load up their Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) and enter the IP address they want to attack. The resulting assaults are massively distributed making defending against them almost impossible.

Yesterday’s target one was everyone’s favorite Indian anti-piracy company, AiPlex Software. A completely unknown entity until a couple of weeks ago when they stupidly admitted to DDoSing uncooperative torrent sites (then unsuccessfully trying to backtrack), it seems their rise to fame came at a price.

Following claims that AiPlex had DDoS’d The Pirate Bay, a few hours ago their website was taken down and remains that way at the time of writing. Along with the downtime came this message (pic):

How fast you are in such a short time! Aiplex, the bastard hired gun that DDoS’d TPB (The Pirate Bay), is already down! Rejoice, /b/rothers, even if it was at the hands of a single anon that it was done, even if ahead of schedule. now we have our lasers primed, but what do we target now? We target the bastard group that has thus far led this charge against our websites, like The Pirate Bay. We target MPAA.ORG! The IP is designated at “216.20.162.10″, and our firing time remains THE SAME. All details are just as before, but we have reaimed our crosshairs on this much larger target. We have the manpower, we have the botnets, it’s time we do to them what they keep doing to us. REPEAT: AIPLEX IS ALREADY DOWN THANKS TO A SINGLE ANON. WE ARE MIGRATING TARGETS.

While it’s claimed that AiPlex was taken down by a single attacker, the ongoing assault on the MPAA.org website is definitely a group effort. The site was attacked on schedule (9pm eastern time yesterday) and taken down in minutes. It remains down at the time of writing.

Update: After 18 hours the MPAA moved its site to a new IP-address, which means it’s up again. More news coming up tomorrow.

Update: Is the RIAA next?