Category: Editorial

Today, Sony admitted that the recent breach in the Playstation Network compromised the personal information of its users. The information they fumbled includes full names, home addresses, birthdays, e-mails, logins, and passwords. While Sony has not been forthcoming about the safety of credit card information, they have admitted to the strong probability that this has also been compromised. Sony recommends that customers check their credit report. We must conclude the PSN credit card database has been entirely compromised, otherwise Sony would never ask its customers to check their credit reports.

Sony’s incompetence has led to the collective loss of privacy for 69 million people on PSN. It is safe to assume that this will most likely lead to financial losses in a significant proportion that may already be targets of identity theft and phishing. Even in the unlikely event that the credit card information is proven safe, PSN users have been the victims of Sony’s destructive incompetence. Representatives of the 69 million Playstation Network users are to file a class-action suit shortly. Sony will pay for the damages they have incurred. The masses will not be satisfied with small PSN trifles in exchange for network downtime. This is far beyond the scope of network downtime.

The lack of transparency Sony has shown is shocking. It is apparent that they have no regard for their own users and plot each statement carefully just to set up profitable public relations. The most likely scenario is that Sony has known all the facts for weeks. The DDoS attacks by Anonymous gave Sony their best chance to fix the situation quietly and without blame. However, Sony has misjudged the gullibility and timidity of their consumers. With the help of Anonymous, PSN users have angrily demanded answers to the right questions at the right time. Now they demand to be paid back for Sony’s failure. Anonymous is on the side of PSN users even though they were quick to wrongly blame Anonymous. Anonymous exists to make sure those who are damaged by Sony will be repaid. Anonymous will file the class action suit if no one else will. Many within Anonymous have also been harmed by Sony’s incompetence.

New Zealand’s Parliament has done much more than outlaw the sharing of copyrighted material with their recently adopted legislative amendment.

The government must now force all internet service providers to police their user base for bit torrents. Aside from the immediate cost to service providers, this will have far-reaching economic effects. The slowed growth of internet infrastructure will ultimately hurt all of New Zealand’s online business. This is an affront to a nation that is faced with economic crisis.

This policing of “pirates” will destroy the individual rights to privacy of law abiding individuals. Bit torrents are home to vast quantities of perfectly legal material in the public domain. Those who use bit torrents for any kind of material will become subject to intense surveillance of all their internet activities.

Not stopping at torrents, those who simply use too much bandwidth will be first warned and then charged with steep fines. Under the guise of “anti-piracy,” New Zealand has thrown away net neutrality. On September 1st, 2011, bandwidth will become a taxable commodity for New Zealand.

This same tactic, if proven viable, will likely be applied by other governments all over the world.