Exactly. Who benefits the most from this attack? Anonymous or SOPA/PIPA supports who get to say "look what happened, we need stronger laws on the internet".

Possible, but if this were true, one would expect denials from anonymous mouthpieces as well.

also, poster child spokesperson Barrett Brown confirmed it.

It is interesting that this article appeared today: https://hackernews.hn/item?id=3484419

On HN's frontpage, hours before the take down, then this.

SOPA doesn't really have anything to do with DDOS afaik.

But I take your point , it contributes to a general "the internet is scary" atmosphere.

It has to do with the initiatives to regulate the Internet and tame the wild wild Net where "anything goes".

Yes, although I have no idea how one could effectively legislate against DDOS since it's already basically illegal.

This makes more sense than "Anonymous" taking down .gov websites in a coordinated attack.

"Anonymous" is so handy, if they didn't exist the government would just have to invent them.