Rule #1 Of The Internet

Today, the RIAA and MPAA learn a harsh, merciless lesson.

Never.

Ever.

EVER.

Piss off 4chan.

4chan does not give a damn about things like 'ethics' or 'laws' or 'privacy' or anything that might stop a normal person from doing awful things to you. They're not going to kill you or anything violent like that (although they will make threats), but they will bombard you with embarrasing things through the mail, they will DDOS your website (as has happened here), they will hack, they will post porn all over the place, all in the name of what they figure to be vigilante justice. Or laughs. Sometimes they do crazy things for laughs. It's sometimes hard to tell.

You remember when someone hacked into Sarah Palin's Yahoo Mail account during the 2008 election? That was 4chan.

You remember when seven different NFL stadiums had to deal with threats of dirty bombs in October 2006? That was 4chan.

You know Rick Astley? The whole rickrolling thing? That was 4chan.

You know those 'trending' topics on Yahoo? If you see something really strange for no good reason, like a swastika, or 'fried chicken', there's a decent chance it's 4chan.

Of course, to be fair, there have been several occasions over the years of some guy threatening violence through 4chan, and the rest of 4chan then turning on THAT guy, effectively handing him over to the police themselves. (They're not evil. Just chaotic.)

No, the rest of us on the Internet aren't about to try and corral them. Many of us dare not even speak their name, for fear of summoning them. We just watch them tear into somebody and we're glad it's not us.

RIAA, MPAA. I'm just glad I'm not you.