Anonymous Moves from Sony DDoS to Anti-Sony Facebook Event

Rather than taking action against Sony that could affect end users, Anonymous is planning a public event that will target Sony stores in a 24-hour, in-store boycott around world on Saturday, April 16. The public Facebook event has more than 1,100 RSVPs at the time of this writing.

The event is called Operation Sony and will begin at 12:00 AM April 16 and run until 12 AM April 17.

On Monday, April 4, Anonymous launched a DDoS attack on Sony, rendering the PlayStation Network (PSN) inaccessible for much of the day. At the same time, an Anonymous offshoot group which called itself "SonyRecon" targeted individual Sony employees.

However, end users complained that the attack on PSN was hurting gamers, who Anonymous was really trying to support. Thus, Anonymous ended the PSN attack, instead taking down the Sony Careers page.

All of Anonymous actions are directed at Sony over jailbreaking the PS3. Anonymous said:

During the last few days, Anonymous has been targeting Sony for their outrageous treatment of not only PS3 users and jailbreakers, but also of the general public. Their propaganda regarding jailbreaking implies that it encourages piracy and thereby makes people lose their jobs, whereas jailbreaking actually just means you are making YOUR device do what it should do. Imagine if Microsoft forced you to use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox or Chrome. Imagine if they denied users from using any other web browser than their own. Many people would obviously be pissed... but then, why aren't you pissed at Sony?

None of the arguments over jailbreaking the PS3 differ much, if at all, from those given for jailbreaking the iPhone, which was made legal in 2010 by a DMCA exemption.

In January, Sony sued 23-year-old George Hotz (AKA "Geohot") for exposing the root key to the PS3, allowing jailbreaking of the game console. Among the results of a jailbroken PS3 is the ability to develop and play homebrew games. However, it also allows the playing of pirated games.

The Geohot saga is well documented. Among the "wins" for Sony so far in the case is the ability for the company to subpoena for IP addresses from Google, Twitter, and YouTube, meaning that if you spent any time looking at information related to the jailbreak, even if just out of curiousity or investigating the matter, your could have your IP address revealed.

Anonymous "reads" its blog post regarding its latest Sony actions in the YouTube video below.