'Anonymous' Plans Sony Boycott on April 16


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Say you're a hacker trying to cripple a major electronics company for suing its own users: how do you launch a cyberattack without harming the people you're trying to protect?

In the case of hactivist group 'Anonymous,' which has spent the week targeting Sony to retaliate against Sony's ongoing lawsuits against PlayStation 3 modifiers, you take it offline.

Anonymous is staging a 24-hour, in-store boycott at Sony stores around world on Saturday, April 16. So far over 1,000 people have RSVP'd through Facebook.

On Monday, Anonymous launched a DDoS attack on Sony that rendered the PlayStation Network (PSN) inaccessible for most of the day (while an Anonymous offshoot calling itself "SonyRecon" targeted individual Sony employees). But after consumers complained that the takedown was doing more harm than good to gamers, Anonymous reversed the hack and took down the Sony Careers page instead. Sony has remained tight-lipped about the hack, only acknowledging the "possibility" of an attack to GameSpot.

"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 wrote in a blog post.

What does Anonymous want from Sony? For starters, to allow PS3 owners to be able to modify their own consoles and share their findings online. It also wants Sony to stop pursuing lawsuits against several well-known PS3 hackers:

In January, Sony sued 23-year-old George 'Geohot' Hotz for exposing the root key to a PS3, allowing users to develop and play homebrew games. His case has been well-documented, partly due to Hotz' appearances on talk shows and homemade anti-Sony rap videos posted on YouTube. Unphased by consumer anger, Sony recently received permission to subpoena PayPal for Hotz' records.

Meanwhile in late February, German police raided the home of Egorenkov, who is best known for reverse-engineering the PS3 and researching security loopholes in the console. Sony later sued Egorenkov for one million euros ($1.4 million) for publishing the findings of his research, known as the "Hypervisor Bible," online.

Anonymous is a coalition of hackers operating under the name "Operation Payback." It has taken on such targets as Broadcast Music International, former HBGary CEO Aaron Barr, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, the Recording Industry Association of America, the U.S. Copyright Office, and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383344,00.asp

So now, if anyone actually attends anyone of these for real, they'll end up harassing innocent people going to the shops...

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Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383344,00.asp

So now, if anyone actually attends anyone of these for real, they'll end up harassing innocent people going to the shops...

I think they need not 'harrass' anyone to get their message out... There are plenty of ways to do it, like holding a sign with a bunch of facts written on it, or maybe with a QR code as well

Or if the stores have TV's playing things from a bluray or dvd player, they can sneak their own discs in and start playing their own videos, for instance...

Or stickers on the outside windows, or hiding little notes in the stores, or having flyers disguised as maketing material ... there could be creative ways to accomplish this

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I think they need not 'harrass' anyone to get their message out... There are plenty of ways to do it, like holding a sign with a bunch of facts written on it, or maybe with a QR code as well

Or if the stores have TV's playing things from a bluray or dvd player, they can sneak their own discs in and start playing their own videos, for instance...

Now that is a public nuisance.

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if the videos arent offensive, its only a nuisance to sony... it would look like something straight out of that 'V' movie

It's a nuisance to customers in a shop who potentially want to watch videos that have buyer information.

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I think they need not 'harrass' anyone to get their message out... There are plenty of ways to do it, like holding a sign with a bunch of facts written on it, or maybe with a QR code as well

Sorry but in this world, no one takes that serious. In this world you need to take gambles to achieve big unrealistic goals.

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It's a nuisance to customers in a shop who potentially want to watch videos that have buyer information.

:( buyer information...

i guess april 16th is not a good day to look for 'buyer information' in Sony stores , if you have alot of brand loyalty...

Sorry but in this world, no one takes that serious. In this world you need to take gambles to achieve big unrealistic goals.

hey, its not up to me, im just giving out ideas, thats all...

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The best way to get back at Sony is to boycott their products. If given a choice I never buy Sony anymore. If enough people refuse to buy Sony then they'll get the message.

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I've agreed with some of the stances that Anonymous has taken, such as those defending Wikileaks. However, this attack on Sony has been childish at best. The fact is, this hacker released information that could open the floodgates for piracy on the PS3. They can yell "homebrew" all they want, but they know as well as I do that 98% of people will use it for piracy.

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See, the authorities etc. can use this as a way of getting those within Anonymous now, basically whoever attends can be charged for the crimes against Sony etc. such as the DDoS attacks.

I would imagine this is the case, but I guess there is no solid proof that person A did the DDoS attack if they attend.

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See, the authorities etc. can use this as a way of getting those within Anonymous now, basically whoever attends can be charged for the crimes against Sony etc. such as the DDoS attacks.

I would think anyway.

It doesn't *quite* work like that. At least in any decent free country which assumes a person is innocent until proven guilty. You can not just arrest a bunch of people protesting outside a store under the assumption that they have committed a crime. You need actual proof

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Sorry but in this world, no one takes that serious. In this world you need to take gambles to achieve big unrealistic goals.

Exactly, nobody remembers the protests where people walk through the streets with signs. The only protests over the last 50 years that actually caused change were the ones that resorted to... extraordinary measures. It's a sad fact, but true.

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It doesn't *quite* work like that. At least in any decent free country which assumes a person is innocent until proven guilty. You can not just arrest a bunch of people protesting outside a store under the assumption that they have committed a crime. You need actual proof

Guessed so.

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I think they need not 'harrass' anyone to get their message out... There are plenty of ways to do it, like holding a sign with a bunch of facts written on it, or maybe with a QR code as well

What world do you live in which that actually works? Unless it's big it doesn't make news, no news = no one cares.

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How come we never read anything like "Anonymous plans to move out of parents basement and get jobs" or maybe "Anonymous takes stand on personal hygiene and good judgement, will shower more than once a week from now on"?

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See, the authorities etc. can use this as a way of getting those within Anonymous now, basically whoever attends can be charged for the crimes against Sony etc. such as the DDoS attacks.

I would imagine this is the case, but I guess there is no solid proof that person A did the DDoS attack if they attend.

They can certainly be arrested for trespassing and maybe vandalism. How else are they going to stage "in-store" protests that start at midnight. Aren't pretty much 100% of stores closed at midnight?

The moment these people set foot inside a Sony story the employees of said store can call the police and tell them they're refusing service to those people. If they don't leave then there will be problems. Sony stores are after all private property.

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The best way to get back at Sony is to boycott their products. If given a choice I never buy Sony anymore. If enough people refuse to buy Sony then they'll get the message.

What message? You're talking crap. Sony have no 'message' to listen to. None of this crap makes sense or has any grounds to it. They're silly little morons taking stands against things for their own pure power trips. That is it. Nothing more, nothing less.

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Anonymous Increase Sony Profits

Anonymous on Saturday (16/04/11) staged mass sit-ins on Sony stores throughout most of America and the UK. Other countries were also meant to take part but few reports of sit-ins were logged.

The group Anonymous were staging these sit-ins to defend the rights of free speech for everyone and true ownership of hardware from Sony. In context they were also polarised against the decision of Sony to remove the ?otherOS? option from the PS3 system and blocking distribution of information on how to get around Sony measures of removing this feature.

However it appears that Anonymous? work has once again been in vain, as several reports throughout the UK especially in London reference consumers assaulting what few protesters were present with water pistols and chucking food ? this is not at all surprising given that the UK is one of the biggest consumers of the PS3 and that not many people side with what Anonymous have done thus far or even understand their cause.

What gives the whole event a negative spin is that speaking to various reps today (17/04/11) from different stores they provided us with a glance at the following internal memo which was quoted in saying:

Thank you all for your understanding and hard work during the protests on Saturday. I would also like to thank all of you that demonstrated positive initiative during this time?we are also pleased to announce that the hard work all of you put in has lead to noted profits?

After speaking to several reps from Sony stores it appears the actions by Anonymous increased sales for many stores with some store managers telling us that initial sales were up almost 10% ? I guess that all publicity is good publicity!

We also asked what was meant by ?positive initiative? and many Sony reps said they were advised when asked what the signs outside meant:

Defending free speech

That they were to tell customers that this was referring to Skype being built-in to their Internet TV?s, the PSP Go and the upcoming NGP ? this in turn resulted in increased sales specifically for televisions with the Skype function.

Source: http://ipconflict.co.uk/2011/04/17/anonymous-increase-sony-profits/

Anonymous Sony Store Boycott Fails; Stores Take Defensive Action

It appears that the 24-hour Sony Store boycott --where members would sit inside Sony Stores with their trademark masks and hand out fliers-- that Anonymous had been planning for some time hasn't gone according to plan. In fact, one could say that Sony took Anonymous' advice and expected them.

Over on the event's official Facebook page, titled "Operation Sony," users were posting updates regarding how the protests had turned out in Sony Stores that they had went to. One person, whose name will not be mentioned, however can be seen on the Facebook page, had this to say:

"I went to the Sony Outlet in San Diego in the San Ysidro mall. No One was there. I didn't have materials to make signs. I didn't have the ink to print fliers. I don't own a mask. And NO ONE was there. Do you know what I did? at first I waited, then I stood outside the store and I talked to people. I stood there, alone, simply asking people to listen and telling them what was happening."

Another user reported that he went to two different Sony Stores, but found nobody:

"well I went to Costa Mesa and no one there, went to LA ... no one there... so I stuck fliers places till I got kicked out haha mostly fail if ya ask me :("

Several videos have been posted onto the Operation Sony page, one showing police waiting outside a Sony Store in the UK, not allowing anyone to get too close to the shutdown store -- some are saying that it was to protest the protesters, however the video showed that nobody was protesting, and another of a man holding up a PlayStation 3 with an Anonymous flyer outside another closed down Sony Store -- attracting little-to-no attention from shoppers.

Strangely, one member apparently ended up buying a Sony Bravia:

"Just went to a Sony store for the first time in my life!. Bought a Bravia :)"

There are currently no signs of people reporting a complete success, nor have there been any videos submitted showing success in the operation. However, according to the page, Anonymous will continue these protests:

"There will be another protest date. This movement does not end here," read part of a message from the page's creator. To check out the videos mentioned, head over to the source below.

Source: http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/85633/anonymous-sony-store-boycott-fails-stores-take-defensive-action/

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Hahahaha.

Anonymous, do you get the message? In the real world, nobody cares.

In the where? :p

Seriously, they don't understand. They want to be able to run Linux on their PS3s and **** anyone who just wants to play games.

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That they were to tell customers that this was referring to Skype being built-in to their Internet TV?s, the PSP Go and the upcoming NGP ? this in turn resulted in increased sales specifically for televisions with the Skype function.

Source: http://ipconflict.co.uk/2011/04/17/anonymous-increase-sony-profits/

Kudos to Sony for making the best of a bad situation, but that doesn't really do anything for their reputation...

... Homer is shocked and attempts to alert the media to the plan, but when Homer comes back with the press Duff had removed all traces of the evidence Homer found in the room. The journalists dismiss Homer's story and call him a liar. In response, Homer stages a hunger strike in which he chains himself to a pole near Duff Stadium in order to force the owners of the team to admit they are moving to Albuquerque. He attracts a great deal of attention, so during the night the team decides to move him into the ballpark and exploit his popularity using the name "Hungry, Hungry Homer."

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