This week “Operation Payback” targets Gene Simmons, MPAA

Anonymous is at it again.

This week in “Operation Payback” news, the protest group has targeted an MPAA-operated website, CopyProtected.com, and the front man for the rock band Kiss, Gene Simmons.

Simmons was the group’s first victim this week, a response to comments that the rock star made recently during a panel discussion at MIPCOM 2010 . “Make sure your brand is protected,” Simmons warned his creative peers regarding peer-to-peer file sharing. “Make sure there are no incursions. Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars. Don’t let anybody cross that line.”

Those words were enough for Anonymous to launch a DDoS attack on GeneSimmons.com, which in turn also affected SimmonsRecords.com. Both sites experienced a significant amount of downtime as a result of the attack.

The other victim of the week, CopyProtected.com, is a site operated by the MPAA and serves as a promotional tool for DRM on Blu-ray discs and DVDs. This time, rather than another DDoS assault, Anonymous hacked the site, placed a special message on the home page, and then redirected visitors to ThePirateBay.org.

“You are forcing our hand by ignoring the voice of the people. In doing so, you bring the destruction of your iron grip of information ever closer. You have ignored the people, attacked the people and lied to the people. For this, you will be held accountable before the people, and you will be punished by them,” a portion of the message read.

CopyProtected.com and Simmons are just two more victims in a long string of attacks against anti-piracy advocates including RIAA, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, AiPlex (who launched the first DDoS attacks against The Pirate Bay and others), the British Phonographic Industry, ACS:Law, and most recently UK law firm Gallant Macmillan and their client, music label Ministry of Sound.

When will the attacks cease? Nobody knows, not even Anonymous, who says that “There is no time frame. We will keep going until we stop being angry.”

One thing that’s for sure is that the group is definitely getting the industry’s attention. Whether they’ll ever get the industry to change, however, is debatable.