Anonymous Targets Sony Over SOPA

The hacker group is displeased with the PlayStation maker once again.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been a hot button issue among gamers, writers, and anyone that uses the internet for more than email and shopping. Ostensibly a bill designed to put an end to piracy, the wording is so broad that it would be possible for the U.S. government to shut down any website that features any copyrighted material. That affects everything, from Facebook to YouTube to your very own PixlBit. Many large companies, such as EA and Nintendo, support SOPA. The hacker group Anonymous is stepping in now and they have threatened to attack Sony over their support of the controversial bill.

Sony is no stranger to the ire of Anonymous. The group hit Sony with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and got the majority of PSN shut down in response to Sony’s lawsuit against George Hotz, who cracked the PS3 framework and published his findings online.

Anonymous is threatening attacks on Sony once again, for their support of SOPA. They call the act a signed death warrant for Sony and their associates. The group plans to initiate a new series of attacks, called Operation Blackout.

“Justice will be swift, and it will be for the people, whether they like it or not,” says a video posted by Anonymous. Though the hacker group eventually ceased their attacks on PSN before because they did not want to affect innocent gamers utilizing the service, it is hard to say what form these new attacks will take.

Mongoose

12/30/2011 at 11:18 PM

Reminds me of Fight Club....

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

12/31/2011 at 05:58 PM

I understand targeting Sony, but they better target EA and Nintendo as well who also support the bill. Only targeting Sony sends the wrong message.

Nick DiMola Director

12/31/2011 at 06:11 PM

Hopefully they don't target anyone since all of these companies stopped backing the bill. Only certain parts of Sony are still backing it, but none of those are the gaming segment.

More PSN outages hurt players too, I wish Anonymous took this into account.

Joaquim Mira Media Manager

01/01/2012 at 11:20 AM

I've read that the gaming companies that are backing off are just saving face because the ESA is still backing the bill.

Julian Titus Senior Editor

01/02/2012 at 07:18 PM

I'm of two minds about this. On one hand, I am terrified of the Big Brother hooks the government seems to be putting into place at every turn. On the other hand, I hate the idea of a private group having as much power as Anonymous. Who's to say that they aren't any worse?

PixlBit