Greetings, Sony Customers And PS3 Users. We are Anonymous.
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?
The fact that their litigation demanded information on everyone who had viewed the material, was completely unacceptable. This is a threat not only to the gaming community, but to freedom of information in general. The fact that the privacy of individuals can be violated, simply for accessing information, and legal action can be taken for doing something with something you own, are steps far beyond the line. Anonymous decided it could not allow this to stand. If jailbreaking a phone for use of legal (unsigned) apps is found legal, why would this be any different for the Geohot case, seeing as Geohot explicitly states he does not support piracy?
Anonymous is not attacking the PSN at this time. Sony's official position is that the PSN is undergoing maintenance. We realize that targeting the PSN is not a good idea. We have therefore temporarily suspended our action, until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers.
Anonymous is on your side, standing up for your rights. We are not aiming to attack customers of Sony. This attack is aimed solely at Sony, and we will try our best to not affect the gamers, as this would defeat the purpose of our actions. If we did inconvenience users, please know that this was not our goal.
This operation is a response to Sony's attempt to deprive their customers of products they bought and therefore own, wholly and completely. Anonymous will not attempt to fight this by following the exact same course of action. We have plenty of tricks up our sleeves.
As a last point, we would like to point out that different operations are "run" by different people. Those who are involved in the organisation of OpSony, are not necessarily those involved in that of SonyRecon. Anonymous Operations are generally independent efforts, and it would be a mistake to assume that the same individuals are responsible for every action taken. Anonymous is comprised of people with diverse points of view, of which not all coincide with one another.
That being said, our campaign against Sony and others that would trample on the idea of free information will continue, until we are satisfied with the outcome. |
Update 2: Sony said today it is now investigating the cause of these outages: "We are currently investigating, including the possibility of targeted behavior of an outside party. If this is indeed caused by such an act, we want to once again thank our customers who have borne the brunt of the attack through interrupted service. Our engineers are working to restore and maintain the services, and we appreciate our customers' continued support."
Update 1: Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media at SCEA, posted a noticed on the PlayStation Blog tonight saying: "We're aware that some of you have been experiencing intermittent service on PSN today. We're working on finding a solution, and will report back here as soon as it's resolved."
Original Story: Noted hacker group Anonymous issued a threat to Sony this morning saying it would attack its web domains in response to the company taking legal action over George Hotz and others over breaking the PlayStation 3's security.
The group issued a press release on its website, telling Sony: "You have victimized your own customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target those who seek this information. In doing so you have violated the privacy of thousands of innocent people who only sought the free distribution of information." The group also posted a video threat on YouTube, which is embedded below.
Soon afterwards, Sony said on its Twitter account that PSN is currently "undergoing sporadic maintenance" and that access to the PSN "may be interrupted throughout the day." Additionally, the PlayStation Blog and the official PlayStation website have since been loading slowly or not at all.
SCEA has yet to officially confirm these issues are due to a cyber attack. We'll update this story if the company releases a statement.
Posted below is the full, written statement from Anonymous:
Congratulations! You are now receiving the attention of Anonymous. Your recent legal actions against fellow internet citizens, GeoHot and Graf_Chokolo have been deemed an unforgivable offense against free speech and internet freedom, primary sources of free lulz (and you know how we feel about lulz.)
You have abused the judicial system in an attempt to censor information about how your products work. You have victimized your own customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target those who seek this information. In doing so you have violated the privacy of thousands of innocent people who only sought the free distribution of information. Your suppression of this information is motivated by corporate greed and the desire for complete control over the actions of individuals who purchase and use your products, at least when those actions threaten to undermine the corrupt stranglehold you seek to maintain over copywrong, oops, "copyright".
Your corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for, and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing. Perhaps you should alert your customers to the fact that they are apparently only renting your products? In light of this assault on both rights and free expression, Anonymous, the notoriously handsome rulers of the internet, would like to inform you that you have only been "renting" your web domains. Having trodden upon Anonymous' rights, you must now be trodden on.
If you disagree with the disciplinary actions against your private domains, then we trust you can also understand our motivations for these actions. You own your domains. You paid for them with your own money. Now Anonymous is attacking your private property because we disagree with your actions. And that seems, dare we say it, "wrong." Sound familiar?
Let Anonymous teach you a few important lessons that your mother forgot: 1. Don't do it to someone else if you don't want it to be done to you. 2. Information is free. 3. We own this. Forever.
As for the "judges" and complicit legal entities who have enabled these cowards: You are no better than SONY itself in our eyes and remain guilty of undermining the well-being of the populace and subverting your judicial mandate. |