In aftermath of United States’ federal agents taking down popular uploading site MegaUpload and its sister site MegaVideo recently, Anonymous is back with its grandest and largest threat ever, with over 5000 people taking down 10 federal and industry websites.

Anonymous announced this via a video posted on YouTube yesterday, titles “Anonymous Message to Congress.” You can watch it above.

In the video, they say they do acknowledge the fact that MegaUpload contained copyrighted material, but taking down the site wasn’t about that at all. Anonymous wants MegaUpload back up within the next 72 hours, or they will launch their attack.

They say they have gained access to the servers of United Nations, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, US Bank, Capital One and Chase Bank. They will take down all of these servers if their demands are not met.

They claim they have the account info of each and every account in the aforementioned banks, but they do want to reassure these clients that their imformation will not be compromised at all. Their goal is only to make a statement to the Congress. They also leave one message to the Congress in their video: “o those who support PIPA and SOPA. To those congressmen who want to vote yes on these bills. We are not fucking playing.”

Well, this seems… rather interesting.

Leave your feedback behind in the comments section below.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) issued a statement today that should pretty much make all the anti-SOPA activists incredibly happy. The bill has been shelved indefinitely.

This is what he said.

“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.

“The problem of online piracy is too big to ignore. American intellectual property industries provide 19 million high-paying jobs and account for more than 60 percent of U.S. exports

“The theft of America’s intellectual property costs the U.S. economy more than $100 billion annually and results in the loss of thousands of American jobs.  Congress cannot stand by and do nothing while American innovators and job creators are under attack.

“The online theft of American intellectual property is no different than the theft of products from a store.  It is illegal and the law should be enforced both in the store and online.

Now this doesn’t guarantee that the bill won’t be back in some different form, but Smith is looking to make a less controversial version of the bill

“The Committee will continue work with both copyright owners and Internet companies to develop proposals that combat online piracy and protect America’s intellectual property.  We welcome input from all organizations and individuals who have an honest difference of opinion about how best to address this widespread problem.

The Committee remains committed to finding a solution to the problem of online piracy that protects American intellectual property and innovation.”

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

I don’t know if “plead” is the right word, but considering the SOPA bill can cause adverse effects for many people making a livelihood off the Internet, it sort of makes sense. So Riot Games who created the massively popular MMO, League of Legends, made a blog post on their site asking gamers to help them stop SOPA.

You can check it out below:

Summoners,

We’re not usually inclined to comment on politics. We’re a game company, and making games is just a whole lot more fun.

But there is legislation under consideration today by the United States Congress that gives us serious concern.

Called the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) in the House of Representatives and the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA) in the Senate, these bills are a misguided attempt to curb the illegal piracy of copyrighted content (like movies, music and games). Preventing piracy of copyrighted content is a laudable goal, and Riot supports legitimate efforts to combat these activities and protect content creators (like us).

However, SOPA/PIPA goes far beyond simply addressing piracy. This proposed legislation actually threatens any website that features user-generated content. In effect, any copyright holder could file a claim that a streaming website is hosting unauthorized content (such as a song in the background of a League of Legends stream). Under the law, ad networks, payment providers and internet service providers are now potentially liable for their user’s infringement. These services could then be compelled to immediately remove support for a streaming website or face a costly legal battle – at a minimum cutting off financial means, and likely shutting off the site entirely.

How would SOPA/PIPA impact League of Legends players?

• Kills streaming. If any single streamer plays copyrighted music (or alt tabs into a movie or other owned content) on their stream, there is a significant risk of the entire streaming service being taken down. In some cases, it could even result in criminal penalties for the streamer.
• Threatens independent content creation. Services we all use to create and share League of Legends related content, such as YouTube, Reddit, DeviantArt, streaming websites such as Own3d and Twitch, and more would be at risk of shutting down or greatly restricting the scope of legitimate content allowed on their sites.
• Attacks our community. Aspects of our service such as the official forums and potentially even in-game chat, could be taken down or have their features reduced based on user behavior.
• Other harmful effects. SOPA/PIPA undermine established intellectual property legislation like the DMCA, raise serious constitutional free speech issues, and could even compromise the basic security infrastructure of the internet.

Congress will reconvene at the end of January, and with a long roster of supporters on both sides of the aisle, SOPA/PIPA could actually pass. The likelihood is so great that technology giants including Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter have gone so far as to publicly consider a simultaneous blackout in protest.

Riot Games is opposed to SOPA/PIPA in their present form. While we do support efforts to prevent online piracy, the current form of this legislation comes at far too high a cost for us, our players, and online communities across the internet.

Help us take a stand. Write your congressperson today and voice your opposition to this misguided and harmful legislation: https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173

You can join the discussion on Reddit here.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

GoDaddy is in big trouble and they know it. MLG Gaming issued a statement recently and said that they are dropping over 100 domains from GoDaddy and switching to Namecheap.

Now, 100 domains may not be much, since over 45 million domains are under GoDaddy, but it’s nice to see people stand up for their rights against the SOPA bill, which threatens to affect many people who make a livelihood from the internet.

This is what they said:

MLG would like to officially announce that we have removed our entire network, which encompasses over 100 domains, from GoDaddy.com in response to their support of SOPA. Moving forward, we will be using Namecheap for all of our hosting needs.

MLG is firmly against both the specifics of SOPA and the philosophy behind the bill. We urge all of you to read up on the issue  and draw your own conclusions.

If more people stand up and spread the word, the impact will be big enough for GoDaddy and others to feel the heat. They recently said that they aren’t supporting the SOPA anymore, but it’s too late for backtracking it seems.

What can GoDaddy do now? Tell us in the comments section below.