by When the howling voice of Jim Morrison sung the words “They got the guns, but we got the numbers; gonna win yeah, we’re taking over!” in 1968 he was referring to the 60′s counter-culture vs. traditional culture. The same words, however, could also be today’s rallying cry for SOPA opposition. You could say that companies like GoDaddy have “the guns” (billions of dollars), but the geeks, pirates, and supporters of internet freedom have the numbers. GoDaddy lost — by being pressured into switching its position, opposing SOPA, yet still losing customers. Now Sony and Nintendo are caught in the opposition’s crosshairs, and may be in the process of performing their own 180° shift.
Sony and Nintendo were previously on the House of Representatives’ list of SOPA supporters. Now Nintendo has disappeared from the list, and only Sony’s music divisions remain. The companies, hoping to avoid drawing attention, have yet to acknowledge the change or make any public comment on it.
Apparently the move hasn’t been enough to satisfy internet “hacktivist” group Anonymous. The group has released a video (spoken in the group’s customary text-to-speech voice) in which it threatens to attack Sony. It declares that Sony’s support of SOPA is a death warrant for the company, and that it will — once again — bring down the Playstation Network. In dramatic rhetoric, Anonymous adds that it will extinguish Sony, and “dismantle its phantom from the internet”:
It isn’t clear why Anonymous is targeting the PSN when only Sony’s music divisions are officially supporting SOPA, but the PSN is the area where Anonymous can do the most damage.
History repeating itself?
If Sony’s execs have any memory whatsoever, then they must be quivering in their boots. Earlier this year the company went through its most embarrassing — and expensive — ordeal in its history when it had PSN subscribers’ account information stolen, and then suffered through multiple outages. Anonymous denied involvement, though many believe that it was at least partially responsible. No matter who was behind it, the hacking is widely viewed as revenge for Sony’s legal attacks on jailbreaker George Hotz (now a Facebook employee). Though Sony’s music and gaming divisions are separate, it will be interesting to see if it pulls a GoDaddy or remains defiant.
Sony isn’t, however, the only public entity being targeted by Anonymous; the group has also threatened to “declare their fury” on Justin Bieber, Lady ****, Kim Kardashian, and Taylor Swift for allegedly supporting SOPA.
Sony and Nintendo were previously on the House of Representatives’ list of SOPA supporters. Now Nintendo has disappeared from the list, and only Sony’s music divisions remain. The companies, hoping to avoid drawing attention, have yet to acknowledge the change or make any public comment on it.
Apparently the move hasn’t been enough to satisfy internet “hacktivist” group Anonymous. The group has released a video (spoken in the group’s customary text-to-speech voice) in which it threatens to attack Sony. It declares that Sony’s support of SOPA is a death warrant for the company, and that it will — once again — bring down the Playstation Network. In dramatic rhetoric, Anonymous adds that it will extinguish Sony, and “dismantle its phantom from the internet”:
It isn’t clear why Anonymous is targeting the PSN when only Sony’s music divisions are officially supporting SOPA, but the PSN is the area where Anonymous can do the most damage.
History repeating itself?
If Sony’s execs have any memory whatsoever, then they must be quivering in their boots. Earlier this year the company went through its most embarrassing — and expensive — ordeal in its history when it had PSN subscribers’ account information stolen, and then suffered through multiple outages. Anonymous denied involvement, though many believe that it was at least partially responsible. No matter who was behind it, the hacking is widely viewed as revenge for Sony’s legal attacks on jailbreaker George Hotz (now a Facebook employee). Though Sony’s music and gaming divisions are separate, it will be interesting to see if it pulls a GoDaddy or remains defiant.
Sony isn’t, however, the only public entity being targeted by Anonymous; the group has also threatened to “declare their fury” on Justin Bieber, Lady ****, Kim Kardashian, and Taylor Swift for allegedly supporting SOPA.
