Anonymous, renowned hacktivist group have announced a war against Sony, and they appear to have struck the first blow already. They announced on Sunday that Sony's legal actions against hacker Geohot and their other corporate behaviours “have been deemed an unforgivable offense against free speech and internet freedom.”

They have even posted a video on YouTube targeting the tech company. They say “You will feel the wrath of Anonymous. Your official websites will be taken offline including the PlayStation Store. These attacks will continue until we are completely satisfied with the outcome.”

It isn't all false bravado either, because Sony's Playstation.com and Sony.com websites suffered some inaccessibility and downtime. Other reports are showing that Sony's Playstation Network for the Playstation 3 is suffering from outages and lag. Anonymous issued a statement on their website highlighting that

“you have now received the undivided attention of Anonymous. You have abused the judicial system in an attempt to censor information about how your products work. You have victimized your own customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target those who seek this information. In doing so you have violated the privacy of thousands of innocent people who only sought the free distribution of information. ”

Sony have pursued hacker Geohot (George Hotz) for allegedly violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and for contributing to copyright infringement. He posted the rootkey for the Playstation 3 online in January. This lets people use homebrew software on their Playstation 3 machines, and they can also play pirated games.

Geohot has said he didn't do it to let people play pirated games, his argument was that consumers who buy the hardware should be allowed to tinker with any piece of equipment they like, including the Playstation 3.

KitGuru says: Have anonymous the power to really hurt Sony? Time will tell.

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