As amusing as the attacks on Sony have been lately, at some point they are going to draw the attention of the government. Now you might point out that these attacks have shown that Sony has broken many rules and regulations set by the government. While Sony may be fined for keeping information in the raw, in the end it will be a pittance. Sony has not only given campaign contributions to both sides of the aisle via their Sony Pac but they have spent a large amount of money lobbying the government Sony Lobbying

This may not come as a surprise to anyone, but most politicians don't care about their average constituent. What they do care about is being wined and dined and keeping their position. A large amount of political campaign contributions, especially since Citizens United is part of a promise for later favors. I worked with a retired NYC Firefighter on the campaign trail, and saw the firefighters union endorse his opponent. Why? Because the union was afraid if they endorsed the retired firefighter, if he lost his opponent would hold it against him.

Not only do you have the political contributions of Sony, but they are currently a 26 Billion dollar company (1 billion outstanding stocks, 26 dollars a share). When you start messing with a company this big, the repercussions can be felt all over. There are those that argue that this hacking is just part of a protest. While I agree with this, the problem comes from previous examples. When groups protesting go out to purposely cause property damage (which I agree with) so that the city feels it in the pocketbook, the cops will normally get involved, and they are by extension an arm of the government. In this case of hacktivism, you can expect Sony to eventually go crying to the government and looking to get their windows to stop being smashed.

The Overreaching Arm Of The Law

At the same time, what's even more worrying is those involved in the attacks who might be based in the US run the risks of being considered as "domestic terrorists" thanks to the recently renewed PATRIOT Act. The Patriot Act largely leaves a gray area in what can be considered a terrorist. For example you can look online and see any number of stories in which undercover FBI agents have worked their way into anti-war organizations under the guise of stopping terrorism. Former Black Panthers who were convicted of crimes in the late 60s and are finally starting to get out of jail are finding themselves quickly thrown back into jail because there are no judicial time limits to being charged as a domestic terrorist. So most are released only to find themselves back in jail and facing new charges due to the Patriot Act for crimes they served their time for already. Another example of this is Assata Shakur, who has been on the run living in Cuba for the last 30+ years. In 2005 she was classified as a Domestic Terrorist and given a million dollar bounty. Now ask yourself exactly how dangerous a frail 60 year old black woman whose barely even 120 pounds can really be?

I am in no way taking a side either way, or saying that anonymous is doing anything morally wrong. Government should not hide anything from it's citizens. A Democracy gets all authority and power from it's citizens. Those citizens should have just as much say about the government as everyone else. It's unfortunate that's not true and it seems that the government finds it important to hide information from us. Let's hope that if anonymous is going to take on the government, that it ends more like when the people took down COINTELPRO and not every other time someone has tried standing up to the government and been crushed.

Somewhat Breaking News

The just announced as I was writing this hack by Lulzsec on an Atlanta FBI affiliate seems to be a shot across the bow that is not going to be easily ignored. Not only did they hack the database, but they embarrassed a white hatter under contract with the FBI affiliate. If there's two things I can tell you, it's that the FBI doesn't fuck around and embarrassing someone, even if it's an outside contract to the FBI, is something that can never end well. The US has been gearing up for the last few years in case of a cyber war with China. It will be interesting to watch how the fireworks go off.

Don't think I'm taking the government/Sony's side in this. Technically I'm a Trotskyist/Anarchist and I'd love to see some politicians cut down to size and taught that they can't just mistreat and abuse their constituents because they have funding from big corporations. I just worry that if the government gets their hands on some of these hacktivists they are going to be facing long prison terms for doing nothing but fighting the good fight. Just look at how Bradley Manning has been reportedly mistreated since being taken into custody. Hopefully those members of anonymous who do fall under the reign of the US will know the serious consequences they are facing.

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