Minecraft iOS debut set for after Sony Xperia launch

Please boycott Sony (RIAA/MPAA) products, stop news coverage of them, and rally against government-enforced copyright and censorship.

Sony is a horrible company that doesn't deserve a cent of our money or news coverage. Examples: RIAA, MPAA, copyright lobbying, P2P suits, DRM, proprietary formats, GeoHot suit, predatory business practises, the list goes on and on.

Sony is a primary member of the MPAA movie copyright group whose intense lobbying and shady backroom deals prompted the US government to secretly try to push ACTA and TPP (thinly veiled versions of the US's DMCA Copyright Act) on the rest of the world, confirmed by secret diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks.

They are the reason the US has now implemented PROTECT IP which allows websites and livelihoods to be shut down with nothing more than allegations of copyright infringement. They will also block these sites from search engines, ISPs and payment services without warrant or trial. This is China-style censorship on the "free" internet and Sony had a big hand in it. With oil disappearing and wars to secure it costing so much, media is the US' new target.

Sony is also one of the primary members of RIAA, the right-wing music copyright group that sued grandmothers for alleged music downloading, among thousands of others, to protect their outdated business model. The group that kept CD album prices high despite plummeting costs and resisted online music sales till P2P forced its hand. The group that agreed with applying a levy to all blank CD sales in Canada and now wants it applied to SD cards. The group that raked in millions in licensing fees while artists saw next to nothing.

Sony BMG, one of the main members of RIAA, recently announced that streaming a song you own from your own server storage to your own personal device is "public performance" and subject to licensing fees. They want to shut down Amazon and Google's new music locker services because they want to charge you every time you listen to music. They believe you should pay again for a song to transfer it from one device to another.

Sony is the company that tried to popularize many of their own proprietary formats in direct competition with standardized ones to lock in royalties. The company that installed bug-ridden malware on your PCs without notification as a form of copy control. The company that recently sued a student for writing software for a game console he paid for.

Most recently Sony's poor PS3 network security allowed over 100 million private customer records, including credit card numbers, to be stolen. Since then several of their other websites have been hacked, most likely in retaliation for the types of predatory business practises outlined here.

But hacking isn't the only way to fight back.

Don't buy their game consoles, their phones, their TVs, their stereos, their computers. Don't support radical, government-enforced copyright by buying their music or movies. Mute the TV if you see their commercials. They don't deserve our money and despite being powerful enough to control US lawmaking policy we can fight back - with our wallets.

Please, post this as a Facebook note and tag your friends in it. Post it on Sony-related news articles. Email it. People need to know about the anti-consumer history of this company and stop the corporate takeover of our governments.


Graham J
boycottsony@grahamj.net

I believe you've fallen for the broken telephone effect. All was said was that Minecraft will launch for Xperia Play before other Android devices, status on the iOS release was not mentioned by Mojang at all during that announcement.

I think you mean Xperia Play here. Xperia just the name for their smartphone range.