The Guy Who Hacked Gene Simmons Website Faces 15 Years In Prison...

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 by the FBI to a recent denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on GeneSimmons.com.

Gene Simmons

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. 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."

Source 

digitalmusicnews.com

Posted 12/2011