Hackers Target Sony for Anti-Piracy Bill Support, Website Says
January 20, 2012, 12:34 PM ESTBy Cliff Edwards and Michael Riley
Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp., owner of entertainment websites crippled by hackers last year, is under threat of new attacks for its support of Hollywood-backed anti-piracy measures in the U.S. Congress.
Anonymous, the group behind attacks on corporate and government sites, plans to attack Tokyo-based Sony’s main website on Jan. 23, letting visitors to the page download copyright-protected music and videos, according to SCMagazine.com, the Australian edition of a security website.
The group threatened also to reveal Sony executives’ home addresses and other personal information, according to the website, which monitors Anonymous online forums.
An e-mailed message left for Barrett Brown, a Texas-based informal spokesman for Anonymous, wasn’t immediately returned. Sony declined to comment, spokeswoman Sandra Genelius said.
In December, people who said they were members of the group posted a video message on Google Inc.’s YouTube warning Sony they planned to target the consumer-electronics, movies and music company for supporting anti-piracy measures. The entertainment industry-sponsored legislation is aimed at fighting copyright infringement by websites outside U.S. jurisdiction.
Six U.S. lawmakers dropped their support today for pending anti-piracy legislation as Google, Wikipedia and other websites protest the measures.
Anonymous last April said it would wage digital war on Sony for trying to stop people from tinkering with the PlayStation 3 video-game console. The group denied responsibility for a series of intrusions that brought down the Qriocity and PlayStation Network entertainment services and affected several Sony websites, while saying some members of the loosely organized collective may have been behind it.
--Editors: Anthony Palazzo, Rob Golum
To contact the reporters on this story: Cliff Edwards in San Francisco at cedwards28@bloomberg.net; Michael Riley in Washington at michaelriley@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net
