FBI investigating 4chan's DDoS attacks against antipiracy sites

The FBI is officially investigating the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that began two months ago. Operation: Payback was carried out by 4Chan's users, who call themselves "Anonymous." The attacks left behind many battered websites belonging to antipiracy and entertainment groups, as well as the US Copyright Office. Some of the smaller ones have yet to recover. The FBI didn't make a public statement, but a "source with knowledge of the probe" told CNET that the bureau may have started probing several weeks a...

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What a bunch of losers. Can't imagine how much tax payer money this is costing to try and chase down these morons.

So only the people who are behind the biggest problem here, botnets puppetmasters, are the ones least likely to end up being sued? I don't think that's justice.
I also think a huge bit of the traffic was international, where the FBI has no jurisdiction.
And with these getting sued, what about the DDoS attack the RIAA hired a company to do, or at least the rumour of that?

From what I've seen of 4chan, they're mostly kids that are bored and want to be rebellious with out consequences. Problem is that I think its more than likely that most of them, aren't using proxies and have no idea how to be anonymous, and are even likely to delete important system files when prompted by others.

this is some major crap, and no i wasnt one of the attackers.
instead of hunting real criminal they are looking for some Ddos'ers...

Uh 4chan has done more good than alot of other organizations. AKA project chanology. Helping expose that evil cult masquerading as a religion.

For those saying that the FBI's jurisdiction ends at the borders, that's not entirely correct. They work hand-in-hand with Interpol. Notice many of the attacks weren't just against U.S. based websites. And the FBI can still track down and charge cyber-criminals outside of the U.S. as seen with this recent bust:

http://www.messagingwire.com/aev-760.aspx

I can't tell why you've quoted me by your reply.
Thanks, I guess.

"Uh 4chan has done more good than alot of other organizations. AKA project chanology. Helping expose that evil cult masquerading as a religion."

They've also done a lot of highly ****ed up things, up to and including random death threats. The whole thing is pretty decentralized, so saying '4chan did x, 4chan did y' is a bit like saying 'the people of California did x,' or 'one-eyed people did y,' just because a few people who fitted under that umbrella were involved. In other words, since there is no hierarchy or accepted dogma, one member cannot be fairly held responsible for the actions of another.

I would suggest, however, that if you read through a substantial amount of encyclopedia dramatica and don't find any of it at least a little sickening, you should probably check yourself in with a psychiatrist pretty sharpish.

I'll be amazed if they actually manage to get anything important done or even impact 4chan at all.

Yup.. wasted tax payers money. Goes to show the people in charge of our money are sometimes *****s. Like all those hours will really change anything. Seee the bigger picture.

forget your taxes... thats not the point, they just WON'T ever get the responsible for this. thats the point of a ddos + zombie PCs hop and hop and hop, no chance to get him/them.

Or, people need to develop thicker skin? Not pertinent to the article or comments on hand, but I've been tired of how everyone and everything needs to be politically correct nowadays. Overzealous fingerpointing, overreactions, and that a single word taken out of context can potentially put people to ruin socially, politically, and economically is far more sickening than the random crap you can find on a shock site like dramatica, which is intentionally trying to offend people.

...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH ROFLMAO omg that is so frakin funny...wow.

Obviously the FBI does not understand the affects of mass rage. I just have this vision of them trying to subpoena 3000-5000 people XD all named Anonymous, HAH!

RIAA and MPAA! This will probaly happen again. FBI dont waste time on DDoS attacks, go arrest some drugs dealers, lords, pimps, phedo bears, etc. Earth will be a lot happier place without them than without zombie network.

I agree that anti-piracy methods are getting out of hand, but retaliating like this is not the solution. It is only going to cause the RIAA, MPAA, and other organizations scale up their efforts and waste money. The people doing these actions need to realize that not all content can be free on the internet, otherwise there would be no worthwhile content. This is capitalism

I do think 4chan is a pit of despair and has done alot of things wrong, however I do believe that a place like 4chan is bound to exist. I think the internet as a whole accurately represents society, and stuff like that. So there must be a place like this. I have spent time on 4chan and it does have quite a few douchbags but there are cool people. I heard of reports of people anonymously begging for rent money and actually having someone pay them. Whether it was a scam or the real deal, the fact someone was willing to pay money to keep someone off the streets is a good thing. Also most visitors love cats. Its weird.

As for the record companies, I don't really care about them. I would rather have a record company that put all the copyright power and legal power to the artist. *pipe dream*

interstate commerce clause, anything that uses the internet can be federal if they decide to go after you.