Anonymous visits the BMI website

THE BMI, an organisation that collects royalties on behalf of musicians, has had a visit from the hacktivists called Anonymous who seized control of its website.

The BMI website is still down at the time of writing and has apparently been that way since late Wednesday evening. The BMI might have released a statement explaining the outage, but who knows. Repeated attempts to contact the website have revealed nothing but blank page after blank page after blank page.

Anonymous has posted its own message, however, which clearly marks the website as a target.

"Too long have the music and cinema industries, among others, abused copyright for their own gain. Legislation serves to protect artists not the companies managing them and should never attempt to prevent the spread of creativity to the general public," it said in a statement.

"We have seen BMI consistently copyright legislation and consequently have decided to take action against it to show that the people will not stand for its crimes against the public. As of the time of the writing of this letter BMI.com has been taken down by our successful attack. This is a message to you and other corporations like you, we cannot stand this abuse anymore."

The statement goes on to warn that the BMI, like the other organisations already targeted, is firmly on the Anonymous radar and will remain there. "No company can take advantage of our liberties to churn profits and censor information in any form, this is unacceptable and will be dealt with accordingly by US," it added.

To date Anonymous has taken down a number of websites, some in response to an anti-Wikileaks stance and others for their legislative leanings and roles in copyright cartels.

Heavyweights including Visa, Mastercard, Twitter, insecurity firm HBGary Federal, and Switzerland's Postfinanz bank were taken down in earnest by the loose group of activists, while others, such as the Westboro Baptist Church and national governments were tackled for political reasons.

As Anonymous said itself, it is everyone and it is everywhere, it is legion and it has many enemies, all of whom have had it coming. "We are not loner hackers in our mother's basement, we are your neighbors, your co-workers, your family and your friends; we are omnipresent. We are Anonymous. We do not forgive. We do not forget. You should have expected us."

But, are attacks like that on the BMI a sideshow, or some muscle flexing on behalf of Anonymous which in a short period of time has risen in the public consciousness and grown in power. The group might be playing a game of dominos, but very slowly, and could be knocking down its targets one by one while building up to a very big crescendo.

In an "Open letter to the World" released earlier by the group, the challenges facing Anonymous were laid out along with its aims.

"We can choose to use new technology for radical positive change or let it be used against us. We can choose to keep the internet free, keep channels of communication open and dig new tunnels into those places where information is still guarded. Or we can let it all close in around us. As we move in to new digital worlds, we must acknowledge the need for honest information and free expression," it said.

"We must fight to keep the internet open as a marketplace of ideas where all are seated as equals. We must defend our freedoms from those who would seek to control us."

Currently the group is amassing its forces as it prepares to launch an assault on those responsible for holding Bradley Manning, the Wikileaks whistleblower, and in a statement seen by Forbes.com, marked US Department of Defense press secretary Geoff Morell and chief warrant officer Denise Barnes as targets.

"We're in the ruining business. And business is good," it added. µ