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'Anonymous' Plans Sony Boycott On April 16
Here's an excerpt from PCMag:
"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 the world on Saturday, April 16. So far over 1,000 people have RSVP'd through Facebook."
I really need to get out more..
These guys should avoid doing real life events, it will only underscore how few they are, constantly fighting fire with fire.
They've got 1000 people for a worldwide boycott. I agree, this protest will be like a dust mite crawling across Sony's monocle.
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
Having large number of consumers turn up at stores and block sales is going to target the top guy. I hope they make sure that they know how to identify Sony sponsored trouble makers. Most interesting would be if they manage to get some real customers confused with the protesters and violently kicked out by security. Now that would make a story :-)
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
Doesn't sound like much, but that will be enough to quadruple the in-store crowds around here.
I can't walk by the Sony Store in the local mall without comparing it to the Apple store a few steps away and guffawing at how far Sony has fallen from relevance. If it weren't for their gaming division, they'd be no different from Generic South Korean Electronics Co., Ltd.
And if gamers would just stop giving them money the company might actually be forced to take stock of its own behavior.
A boycott is a form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons.
sit-in == protest. boycott == protest. and yet, boycott != sit-in.
I'm still not going to sign anything associated with "anonymous." That's just asking for trouble. But before anonymous started making headlines, I have been vehemently against Sony and its products and my history shows it. I just hope this boycott catches on. Sony needs to be taken down a notch.
Damn you brainless consumers!! Don't you know that Sony is bad?
And you're going to 'block sales' without trespassing or obstructing traffic how exactly?
'cmon. Has everybody forgotten how to protest. If the protesters want to get away with it there are so many ways this can be done. Wait until other customers start to arrive in the store. Go into the store (together with more friends than there are assistants). Pretend to be a customer. Demand attention then ask long and annoying but plausible questions about something expensive best of all if it's something you really do want to buy somewhere else. Act unsure; keep all the assistants busy. Then give up. Walk to a different part of the store. Repeat. Alternatively stand outside and be loud. Most customers won't come. Alternatively come in the same colour as the shop assistants. If asked give misleading advice, especially to go to the store round the corner.
Anyway you probably don't care too much about being charged with trespassing. That's the whole point of civil disobedience.
You know, I hope you people who do these things don't object when right wing wackos boycott Ford for 'promoting' homosexuality or anything..
Of course I object; to the homophobia. I don't care about the fact of the boycott if it wasn't for such a bad reason.
P.S. The best way to boycott Sony is not buying their stuff. Buy a Wii instead. That's what I do. I won't be turning up in a Sony store tomorrow because I haven't cared about Sony for years.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
This may be a silly question, but who still buys Sony anyway?
They're constantly trying to shove their expensive, non-standard shit down everyone's throat, leaving you with devices whose removable memory costs several times more than the standards everyone else uses.
I understand that the Playstation 3 has some great games, but why support a company that's consistently more interested in building an empire than working with its customers?
It's been a long time.
Alternatively come in the same colour as the shop assistants. If asked give misleading advice, especially to go to the store round the corner.
Even better, give them brutally honest advice and history lessons. Tell them about the rootkits, the disabling of features on customers devices, the lawsuits, and anything else screwed up that Sony has done to their customers. It would be nice to have some pamphlets made up with all the sordid details (or at least an overview and a URL to find the details) to hand out.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Pretty big gamble by members of the anonymous crowd: if the giant massive preplanned SHOW OUR STRENGTH RAR! sit-in ends up being 12 fat guys, 3 furries, and a couple of abhumans that finally left their parent's basement, the anon-movement will take a giant credibility hit. Kinda like when the brought down Amazon.com for a couple minutes... really showed 'em then!
Would this, by any chance, be the same DMCA that's been decried from the very start as a Corporate lobbied removal of existing liberties?
My, I think it just might.
GeoHot happened to disagree that a corporation has the right to dictate what you can or can't do with an item you've purchased, so he worked out how to do whathe wanted on his own machine.
Now, he distributes that knowledge to a variety of people who are interested in doing the same. Personally, I'd love the ability to have the 'Other OS' functionality back on my PS3. I put my money where my mouth was in supporting the idea that it should be there (I hadn't really been much interested in purchasing a console, but I liked that a corporation would open up a console for the home brew/enthusiast crowd; the very same ideals I had when I was a kid/teenager in the 70s and 80s), and thought 'hell, I can play a game or two on it to justify the spend, and it'll be good to reward a company for even attempting to do something slightly enlightened in this age of trying to lock everything down and out. More than anything, I think I was disappointed in Sony execs. It was a dishonourable thing to do (strike a deal, then renege on it). Western companies, sure I can see them doing just that, but acting with dishonour in the Japanese culture?
Wow.
Still, I find your argument that we should all cheer on Sony because they choose to charge someone under an unethical law for attempting to regain his side of a deal that was struck at the point of payment to be a little naive.
I bought the console simply because it gave me options to do A and B.
After I buy, the company decide that now they only want me to do B. I can do A if I want, but they'll prevent me doing B for as long as I choose to do A.
Should I ever choose to do B, then I can never do A.
Someone works out a way to do A and B again, and the company immediately drag them to court.
Personally, I'd cheer anyone on who attempts to get me my original deal back again. GeoHot did that. So I applaud him for it. Yes, he's in court for his own actions, but that doesn't mean I'm on Sony's side in this; I find their dealings with me to be dishonourable. I consider the DMCA to be unethical.
Really, the USA has fallen a long way, and I somewhat suspect the idealists who started the American war of Independence would be spinning in their graves.
There was an unfair levy placed, and a stripping of liberty on the country, so they threw a whole load of tea into a harbour, and were remembered for centuries as heroes who started a rebellion. I'm a Brit, and I'm pretty much an "establishment" person. I'm still behind the guys who did this all the way.
I wasn't behind the DDOS and compromising of companies. I am behind the peaceful civil unrest of people turning round and saying "this is unjust", and spreading the message. I'm pondering taking part myself, and calmly explaining to people that anything they buy on features could suffer exactly the same fate, and that the company now has an established track record for dishonouring their point of sale promise of functionality.
Personally, I really hope the media takes this and runs with it. It'll be interesting to see how much of a PR hit Sony takes with this one, and how it starts to affect sales at time of austerity, where everyone wants to be able to rely on their vendor.
No, I don't want to see Sony fail. But I want them to understand that actions have consequences, and their action in removing the original deal has a price. And I'd really like them to understand that this may be a price that in future they'll know they don't want to pay.
Ah for an idea world. I suspect it won't hurt them that much, and they'll carry on, knowing they can renege on any deal with impunity. We, as customers, cannot.
What a lovely world us mere mortals live in 'eh? Where's that representation when you need it?
It is if you've been asked to leave.
Disclaimer: IANAL
..., so why should you not be able to jailbreak a PS3" ? Apply for the position of jailer/executioner?
How about switching products from one shelve to the other? Adding flyers describing Sony's practices to product boxes? Inserting DVD/CD's with a prerecorded message/video into any device/box that will take it? Playing the aforementioned DVD/CD on the store televisions? Broadcast over FM/AM so their radios play your message? Buying Sony stuff, only to return it some hours later, entangling their support service? Calling their helpdesk for help with installing Linux? Parody the "You don't steal a car,..., you don't copy music" with a "You can jailbreak an iPhone,
The proper phrase is "For all intents and purposes"
Don't say: For all intensive purposes | Do say: For all intents and purposes
Comment: The younger generation is mispronouncing this phrase so intensively that it has become popular both as a mispronunciation and misspelling.
--http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/mispron.html
The goal of computer science is to build something that will last at least until we've finished building it.
Masks are certainly an option, this isn't the first action of anon in the real world, there were quite a few gatherings outside the church of scientology, most wore masks, usually also blasting Rick Astley or Fresh prince music from the outside.
Stores haven't used AM/FM in, oh, forever. They use satellite, streaming, or a static system (eg, a Muzak box hidden away somewhere).
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
the point of them being a corporation is to make money.
NO! Quit repeating that. The point is to create wealth, add value to society. It is not just to "make money". Money is only a proxy, an imperfect measure of value. Why imperfect? Because there are all kinds of destructive actions that make one small group or individual richer, or only seemingly richer, at the expense of everyone else. The simplest way is outright theft. Lying is another popular one. Bribery is yet another ancient practice. Obtaining a monopoly and gouging the public is the holy grail of profit, and far too many corporations strive for that. Recently we've seen another way: Too Big to Fail. Corporations, to their shame, do all that and more, all the time. Worse, they think that's just life. It need not be! We try to maintain some civility, outlaw destructive actions, and police our corporate citizens, but it isn't easy. There will always be some crime, of course. But we must keep the fraud and deceit in check, or the system will collapse. Damn near happened in 2008, but we were able to bail everyone out. We didn't do it for their sakes, but for our own. Next time, we might not be able to, and then what? I'm not impressed with their behavior. We suffer their existence because they do add value. If ever they fail us, make such a mess that the damage they cause exceeds all possible future value, and we know of it, we can sink them. They know that. But we are very forgiving, maybe too forgiving, and they know that too. For instance, I doubt that BP could survive another disaster like the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Perhaps BP should have been liquidated, and their management thrown in jail.
I really don't see what your problem with Geohot is. Even if he's an attention whore, as you allege, so what? Blaming him for Sony's actions is ridiculous. He didn't "make" them do anything. He has every right to do anything he wants with his property, EULAs be damned. And to exercise his right to free speech. All he did was point out that the Emperor Has No Clothes. Their DRM is a joke and a fraud, just like the Emperor's clothes.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"