Anonymous to Gene Simmons: KISS This!

CYBERSPACE—Reacting to recent comments by rock star businessman Gene Simmons blasting people who illegally download copyrighted music, the pirate-promoting and porn loving group Anonymous has gone on the offensive by targeting two official websites of the KISS bassist and star of the A&E reality show, Gene Simmons Family Jewels. As of Monday afternoon, GeneSimmons.com and SimmonsRecords.com were inaccessible, redirecting to a landing page.

The brouhaha began during a webcast last Tuesday from the MIPCOM Convention in France, where Simmons appeared with A&E President Bob DeBitetto to talk about building strong entertainment brands. During a wide-ranging discussion that revealed the calculated strategy behind the making and rise of KISS, Simmons launched in a tirade about illegal downloading of music.

"Make sure your brand is protected. Make sure there are no incursions. Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars. Don't let anybody cross that line,” he said. "The music industry was asleep at the wheel, and didn't have the balls to sue every fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid who downloaded material. And so now we're left with hundreds of thousands of people without jobs. There's no industry."

Fighting words, to be sure, especially if the idea of paying for—well, anything—makes your brain explode, as it does the anonymous purveyors of Anonymous. Fresh off their attacks on ACS:Law, the notorious law firm that has aggressively targeted end users, Anonymous rallied the troops.

“Mr. Simmons shares the same ideology as ACS:Law and many of our other targets,” read a call-to-action. “Thusly his website has been targeted.”

Informed of the plan to target his sites, Simmons posted a comment in reaction on his site:

Some of you may have heard a few popcorn farts re: our sites being threatened by hackers.

Our legal team and the FBI have been on the case and we have found a few, shall we say "adventurous" young people, who feel they are above the law.

And, as stated in my MIPCOM speech, we will sue their pants off.

First, they will be punished.

Second, they might find their little butts in jail, right next to someone who's been there for years and is looking for a new girl friend.

We will soon be printing their names and pictures.

We will find you.

You cannot hide.

Stay tuned

Unfortunately, or not, the site is still down.