Kiss bass player Gene Simmons has always been one for fleecing every penny possible out of fans – whether it is for Kiss Koffins to send them to rock n’ roll Valhalla or Kiss themed computer games – but comments about ‘illegal’ downloading of music which he made at a music conference in France last week have caused him a spot of bother. Simmons hit out at the music industry for not being quick enough to sue people for downloading and service providers for providing the means for them to do so. He said “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. 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.”
That only served to get up the nostrils of internet activist group Anonymous, which is linked to the popular 4chan.org internet forum. This group has previously targeted organisations and individuals who speak out against free downloading of material. Within minutes of his comments, Anonymous had launched a denial of service attack on his official website www.genesimmons.com and record label www.simmonsrecords.com . Despite Simmons’ claim that the FBI is investigating the attack, both websites are still down as of the time of writing, over a week after he made the comments. Check out his rant here:
