Anonymous launches an assault on Ireland

HACKTIVIST GROUP Anonymous has targeted a number of Irish government web sites in response to proposed changes in that country's copyright laws.

A number of accounts began posting statements about their attacks on Irish web sites, those with a .ie suffix, after it was discovered that the country is rewriting copyright legislation.

The Irishsopa hashtag caught on, and soon tweets about web sites being downed started popping up.

"#irishSOPA #OpIreland is engaged,Expect us," said AnonyopsSweden, "A note to some f**ktards, when we attack after office hours, we send a wake up - warning shot. no more no less #OpIreland #irishSOPA,"

"http://www.justice.ie/ TANGO DOWN #OpIreland #irishSOPA #Anonymous," added the Opcensorthis account in its note about the attack on Ireland's department of justice web site, which is live at the time of writing.

The Irish copyright bill would let copyright holders block web sites in that country, which suggests that it either takes a very hard line on 'piracy' or has not been paying attention to the anti Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) campaign in the US. µ