Anonymous suspends PSN bombardment

Hacktivist collective Anonymous has "temporarily suspended" the war on PlayStation Network - the beef is with Sony, not Sony's customers.

"Anonymous is not attacking the PSN at this time," declared Anonymous via a press release. "We realise that targeting the PSN is not a good idea. We have therefore temporarily suspended our action, until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers.

"Anonymous is on your side, standing up for your rights. We are not aiming to attack customers of Sony. This attack is aimed solely at Sony, and we will try our best to not affect the gamers, as this would defeat the purpose of our actions. If we did inconvenience users, please know that this was not our goal.

"This operation is a response to Sony's attempt to deprive their customers of products they bought and therefore own, wholly and completely. Anonymous will not attempt to fight this by following the exact same course of action.

"We have plenty of tricks up our sleeves," Anonymous added.

Apparently yesterday's PSN outage was a result of Anonymous attacks. "Sony's official position is that PSN is undergoing maintenance," the press release read.

Anonymous hackers declared war on Sony at the start of the week. The recent press release reiterates the reason why: the "outrageous" treatment of PS3 jailbreakers (George "Geohot" Hotz), PS3 users and the general public.

"[Sony's] propaganda regarding jailbreaking implies that it encourages piracy and thereby makes people lose their jobs, whereas jailbreaking actually just means you are making your device do what it should do," stated Anonymous.

"Imagine if Microsoft forced you to use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox or Chrome. Imagine if they denied users from using any other web browser than their own. Many people would obviously be pissed. But, then, why aren't you pissed at Sony?

"The fact that their litigation demanded information on everyone who had viewed the material was completely unacceptable. This is a threat not only to the gaming community but to freedom of information in general. The fact that the privacy of individuals can be violated, simply for accessing information, and legal action can be taken for doing something with something you own, are steps far beyond the line.

"Anonymous decided it could not allow this to stand," the group declared. "If jailbreaking a phone for use of legal (unsigned) apps is found legal, why would this be any different for the Geohot case, seeing as Geohot explicitly states he does not support piracy?

"Our campaign against Sony and others that would trample on the idea of free information will continue until we are satisfied with the outcome."