In a first confirmation that opinions are getting polarized there are some late and unhelpful attempts by wagon-jumpers, especially celebrities, to liken the US action to shut down Megaupload, one of the internet’s largest file-sharing sites, to the legislative proposals of SOPA and PIPA.

More worryingly, the misguided hackers group Anonymous targeted and attacked the FBI and US Department of Justice websites, apparently because of this legal action.

The US action was in fact agreed two weeks ago, and includes charges of conspiracies to commit racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering. The Justice Department claimed that the accused had pursued a business model designed to promote the uploading of copyrighted works.

This shows a faulty strategy as well as terrible timing, as it suggested that neither SOPA nor PIPA might be needed in the fight against internet piracy. If the Justice Department can find and charge people suspected to be involved in piracy using the existing laws (and in this objective I am sure that they have plenty of support), then why the need to propose further regulations, annoy the entire internet community, lose the high ground on internet freedom such that even normally intelligent people were making comparisons between the policies of the US administration and China’s Government?

The secret of good politics, to be sure, is good timing. The pluralism of the American body politic is wondrous thing, but this example recalls the difficulties of the centipede when it forgets how to walk.