An update this week on the website that serves as the home base for Operation Payback could signal a drastic change in tactics for the group’s ongoing campaign to change copyright laws.
Following two months of relentless DDoS attacks on pro-copyright organizations and entertainers, Anonymous has posted an explanation of their near-silence during the past week. The group states that they have been “plotting and considering alternate ways” to approach their mission of freeing information for the masses.
The results of all the “plotting and considering” appears to be an intelligent and moderate new stance outlined in a proposal to reduce the life of copyrights over the next ten years:
For everyone who thinks we're just a bunch of geeky kids, please consider these proposals, just humor us.
Short Term (within the next 2 or 3 years)
- Copyright lifetime reduced to ~25 years
- No more piracy lawsuits
- Patent lifetime reduced to ~15 years
- Idle patent lifetime reduced to ~3 years
- No censorship
Medium Term (within the next 10 years)
- Copyright lifetime reduced to ~5 years
- Pharmaceutical/medical patent/copyright lifetime reduced to 1 or 2 years
- Global patents lifetime reduced to 5 years
Long Term (longer than 10 years)
- Copyright and patent lifetime reduced to 1 or 0 year
(For the detailed sets of recommendations listed for the bullet points above, see the full post at AnonOps.net)
The proposal is in line with the kinder, gentler Anonymous that was presented to the world in an interview of group members with TorrentFreak earlier this week. The new attitude is in stark contrast to the anger the group showed while in the midst of their DDoS strikes just one month ago.
What has prompted this abrupt change? One has to wonder whether the FBI investigation launched after the DDoS attack on the US Copyright Group has anything to do with it.
