Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes and Viacom’s Sumner Redstone are among the honchos under attack by Anonymous — a group of so-called Internet “hacktivists” – The New York Times reports. Bewkes apparently has already been hit with threatening phone calls and emails after the group disclosed his home addresses and phone numbers on the Web. Anonymous also revealed contact info for people at NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Disney. While it didn’t spread Redstone’s contact info, the group did circulate other material about his family. The attack is part of Anonymous’ “Operation Hiroshima,” a newly launched campaign to protest the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate’s Protect IP Act — similar bills that would empower the federal government to block overseas Web sites that traffic in pirated content. Hollywood says they’re needed to stop rampant theft of movies and TV shows, among other things. But Internet and tech companies say the bills could end up being used to quash free speech or attack legitimate Web sites. “You take our speech. You take our Internet. You take our Bill of Rights. You take our Constitution. We fight back,” Anonymous said in a video that announced Operation Hiroshima.


Gotta love the mentality of the studios going after guys that play dirtier than them, years after the horse has left the barn, and the barn has burned down.
I saw the pastebin docs… It wasn’t really anything. Home phone numbers are easily changed in cases of harassment.
This is juvenile prankster-ism, but the info released was pretty benign. Incidentally, there are I think 15 people facing many years in prison for the paypal DDOS. Anonymous is losing members.
The real news of the day is that Lamar Smith has agreed to soften provisions of the bill. Compromise is coming and hopefully this hysterical screeching online will come to a conclusion.
agreed Bob…for years, the studios and networks didn’t have to deal with the repercussions of their poor decision making…the worst that would happen is some angry letters and phone calls…and its easy to ignore the rabble when you go from your gated community to your private studio lot
that is not the case anymore….while I do not agree with most of Anonymous’ activities, I do agree with getting the message across to these stuffed shirts that their days of not being held accountable are over
Excellent, hopefully they release a lot more.
i’d be afraid of the internet too, if i was them.
Freedom of Speech isn’t taken. It’s alive and well on the inter-net. The inter-net was taken a long time ago as the ads exhibit. The Garden of Eden inter-net that was supposed to happen was sold out by the inter-net entrepreneurs like Jeff Zuckerberg where, in addition to its “free” service, takes your privacy every business opportunity it can come up with. Taken the Constitution and Bill of Rights? Love to see that argument in writing. If they can elliptically make connections I, as much as anybody, would love to learn more about the stance.
But the tolerance for computer hacking in this country is out of control not the least of which because the government engages in it routinely (and arrogantly.) In terms of information and personal violation it is no different than breaking and entering, and potentially leads to much, much worse. If Leon Panetta’s wife is shopping for lingerie on-line, and I hack into her computer and I’m a psychopath, I may follow her someday with the intent of making sure I see her in that lingerie that I’ve come to love so much because I’ve been hacking into her computer to study her habits, learn her routines, and watch her shop for lingerie. None of this even remotely takes into account the potential for prosaic garden variety identity theft. It’s like a private citizen placing a camera in a locker or rest room. The theory is that they would NEVER subvert boundaries. Says who? You? You’re hacking into computers! The same argument equally applies to Anonymous, the government, any corporation who engages in such practices deniably through “professionals” and, yes, the absolutely creepy and psychotic Office of Special Affairs in the Church of Scientology. Warantless wiretapping gets bandied about all of the time as the litmus test for alarming government Patriot Act malfeasance. Factor unchecked computer hacking into the heinous (and silent) equation of sanctimonious psychopathic justification in the guise of exclusively fighting terrorists.
In reference to piracy – Steven Soderberg, in discussing the movie “Traffic,” made an interesting observation about drugs.
Remembered, it was something like :
*When it’s somebody else’s family they’re a legal problem.
*When it’s your family they’re a health problem.
At the moment, it seems to me, so goes copyright :
*When it’s somebody else’s copyright it’s a world-view-philosophy state-of-the-human-condition health problem.
*When it’s YOUR copyright it’s a legal problem.
How many writers do you think there are, regardless of their membership in Anonymous, who look forward to royalty checks cycling around a couple of times a year? How many lawyers get hired for legitimate audits by both the conglomerates but also by other beneficiaries of profit participation regarding shared projects?
Three other things : 1. Is Anonymous playing nameless faceless Patrick McGoohan of “The Prisoner” for the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to buy a sub-par bootlegged copy of “Crazy Stupid Love” from that industrious Chinese guy who’s always on the F line? (FYI. Entre nous. P.S. He’s always got the best and latest titles.) 2. If you follow Anonymous’ logic to the inevitable conclusion you will have the continued erosion of the unions in Hollywood to look forward to. In this way maybe a Brandon Lee can be shot on set EVERY DAY. Won’t that be great? 3. Washington has no right whatsoever to dictating piracy policy in other countries. There’s been a subtle shift from seeking foreign box office to pandering to it. Maybe that’s what that’s all about.
The solution is obvious : blackmail INTERPOL into assassinating any and all “Crazy Stupid Love” bootleggers abroad. The current president seems to love to be complicit with deniably ordering illegal assassinations – Iran nuclear scientist, bin Laden; and loves conducting contra-style weapons programs like “Fast and Furious.”
I mean, right is right, end of story, you know? Like the man (hilariously in light of recent events) claimed about Gitmo : “That’s not who we are.”
These moguls are very dangerous, dirty and nasty, they take no prisoners and they can easily have MI5 or some other spy dept show up and shut these idiots down overseas,
best case, the hacktivists mothers and fathers will get thrown in the local jail for a week,
I shudder to think of the worst case, esp when the gloves come off,
SOPA sounds like a good idea – until in 10 years from now we’re banning Al Jezeera due to “content violations.”
This is some Lisbeth Salander shit. Git ‘em kids!