Daily Rant: Why Hack Sony?

The hackavist group, Anonymous made national news when Sony’s PlayStation Network fell apart around April 20th. It’s mainly because Sony had stated that they found a file with the words “Anonymous” and “We Are Legion.” This caused the group to deny involvement, and in fact, break apart. It’s because some members saw leadership rising in the group, and the point of the group was not to have leadership, and not be conventional. Anonymous has quieted down recently, but this person/group “Lulzsec” seems to want an uprising.

They call it Operation Sownage.

1) Stupid name.
2) This will interfere with illegal and international business and will result in an attention in internet regulation.

Honestly, why hack Sony? Why hack a multi-billion dollar company that produces the state of the art technology for a decent price for its quality? (Admit it, 72″ flat screens will never be cheap. You won’t ever find one for free, less then $1000 new, or anything in a conceivable “reasonable” price. And no matter how you look at it, flat screens will break if they fall. So if your Sony Bravia TV breaks, it’s not because it’s Sony’s “poor manufacturing.”

And if it is, you should be questioning why the world is manufacturing most of their crap from China. Thus, if the PS3 breaks, it isn’t because Sony’s doing a bad job at making it. Why do you think Sony makes NEW versions of PS3s every few years? Because machines aren’t built to last and man-made things tend to fail because of wear and tear. It’s a system that was built on the concept of being the most powerful console of its decade. What burns twice as bright, will live half as long. It is an inevitable concept.)

And it also shouldn’t be a question of “Why not hack Sony?” These hackers seem to have the most stupidest and selfish reasons. Not to mention self-righteous ones. They say they’re protected by the First Amendment, but in the US, it’s a checks and balances system. This means anything you have a right to, will always have limitations. Yeah sure, where’s our freedom then? Well, take it up to America’s Bill of Rights and the Supreme Court, not Sony. We have some freedom, but collectively as Americans and civilized people, we gave up some in order to escape the “short and brutish” life as dictated by Hobbes.

In addition, use a little logic - Protected by the Eighth Amendment, no one is allowed to have cruel and unusual punishment. You think it’s “freedom of expression” if you hung and mutilated the genitals of the guy who slept with your wife and called it some form of symbolism and omen for all the guys who sleep with other guys’ wives?

Well you can call it that, but you’re still breaking the law that defines your little art piece as pre-mediated murder and manslaughter. Either way you look at it, no matter how many times hackers say they’re propagating justice or freedom of expression, they break the codes outlined by the DMCA.

So this takes us to a terrible course of 1) maiming Sony and 2) eventual regulation of the internet.

I’m not someone who particularly cares if I can’t go on youku.com in the US, but the more hackers decide to hack and cause trouble in the cyberworld, rules will eventually be made. The internet has no country line or border, so it can be a separate domain of its own (neither national nor international).

And lastly, taking out Sony will send the electronics industries tumbling. Someone will eventually take its place, but not for a long time. Sony has a placehold in TVs, MP3s, computers, cameras, printers, and the gaming world. Sony publishes an insane amount of games each year, not to mentioning supporting individual studios to make exclusives. (inFamous, God of War - these games aren’t exclusives because the studios wants them to be, Sony supports these studios especially to make these games for their own consoles).

So far, the hackers are garnering support for themselves, and its time for some supporters to come up on Sony’s side. The PSN will be coming up shortly, and no one wants it back down.