Recent legislation, called the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, was proposed that would fight copyright infringement on foreign websites. However, many groups have been vocal about their opposition to the bills. Many Minnesotans noticed that several websites, such as Wikipedia, were voluntarily blacked out in protest of the bills as well. Additionally, a group of well-known hackers forced a blackout on the websites of supporters of the bills, like the Department of Justice and record companies, by initiating a denial of service attack.

A denial of service attack consists of flooding a website with traffic until the site crashes. There are also attacks called Distributed Denial of Service, where hackers request help from others to crash the site. They ask people to click on a link and download large amounts of data that overwhelm websites.

The recent attacks on SOPA and PIPA supporters were launched by a hacker group known as Anonymous. The group is responsible for a number of powerful, and often debilitating, hacking activities on the websites of many well-known corporations. Typically, the group posts links on Twitter that take followers to various press releases about their activities. The latest link, however, did not take visitors to a news story. Instead, people who clicked on the link joined the denial of service attack.

Many people were unaware that they had participated in the crime. While there were some people who warned others about the effects of clicking on the link, others simply said that clicking the link would support the groups who are fighting SOPA and PIPA.

Now the FBI is involved and it is said that people who clicked on the link, even accidentally or without understanding what they were doing, can be arrested. But because there has to be proof that a cyber attack was intended to cause harm, it is typically very difficult to prosecute the offender.

Launching a denial of service against a person or company can have serious consequences. Many people may face several years in prison. The attack does not require much hacking experience, so there may be many people who may not fully understand the penalties they face if they are charged with this Internet crime. In any charge involving a cyber crime, it is important to realize that laws can be vague and legal representation is often necessary.

Source: The Huffington Post, "Is Clicking A Link A Crime? Anonymous Attack on DOJ Tricked Internet Users Into Participating," Gerald Smith, Jan. 20, 2012