The memo is out: major content owners are deathly serious about enforcing their property, and they want to make examples. That may include 24-year-old Kevin Poe, who has been linked to a recent denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on GeneSimmons.com by the FBI. The Connecticut-based Poe has been charged with two federal counts of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, and penalties that could result in 15 years of prison time.
For now, Poe has been released on $10,000 bond, and a court date in Los Angeles is being scheduled.
This all started last year, when stern statements against piracy drew the attack. “The music industry was asleep at the wheel and didn't have the balls to go and sue every fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid who downloaded a clip, so now we're left with hundreds of people without jobs," Simmons told an audience at MIPCOM in France last year. Soon thereafter, GeneSimmons.com was hobbling under a crippling flood of fake site requests, a classic hacker tactic for downing a site.
Poe is believed to be part of the shadowy Anonymous network, a collective that has also downed the RIAA's site on numerous occasions. But the debate on Simmons is slightly different: while the RIAA fits more neatly into the 'evil' categorization, Simmons is an artist—just one who happens to have a very pro-capitalist, pro-enforcement bias. And, unlike most artists who feel the same way, he's unafraid to express very strong positions on the matter. “Make sure your brand is protected," Simmons continued. “Make sure there are no incursions. Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars. Don't let anybody cross that line."
The question is whether the heaviest of hammers—in the form of FBI roundups or SOPA shutdowns—will ultimately protect content. But it's hard to say Simmons doesn't have an adaptive model: KISS is famous for branching way beyond the recording and into products that are harder to pirate, and KISS 'wrote the book' on merchandising. That is, literally: KISS was releasing comic books early on, and Simmons himself has authored several books himself over the years. The rest includes everything from 'KISS condoms to caskets,' or as Simmons loves to say, 'we'll have you cumming and going.'
For now, Poe has been released on $10,000 bond, and a court date in Los Angeles is being scheduled.
This all started last year, when stern statements against piracy drew the attack. “The music industry was asleep at the wheel and didn't have the balls to go and sue every fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid who downloaded a clip, so now we're left with hundreds of people without jobs," Simmons told an audience at MIPCOM in France last year. Soon thereafter, GeneSimmons.com was hobbling under a crippling flood of fake site requests, a classic hacker tactic for downing a site.
Poe is believed to be part of the shadowy Anonymous network, a collective that has also downed the RIAA's site on numerous occasions. But the debate on Simmons is slightly different: while the RIAA fits more neatly into the 'evil' categorization, Simmons is an artist—just one who happens to have a very pro-capitalist, pro-enforcement bias. And, unlike most artists who feel the same way, he's unafraid to express very strong positions on the matter. “Make sure your brand is protected," Simmons continued. “Make sure there are no incursions. Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars. Don't let anybody cross that line."
The question is whether the heaviest of hammers—in the form of FBI roundups or SOPA shutdowns—will ultimately protect content. But it's hard to say Simmons doesn't have an adaptive model: KISS is famous for branching way beyond the recording and into products that are harder to pirate, and KISS 'wrote the book' on merchandising. That is, literally: KISS was releasing comic books early on, and Simmons himself has authored several books himself over the years. The rest includes everything from 'KISS condoms to caskets,' or as Simmons loves to say, 'we'll have you cumming and going.'
