'Anonymous' Plans Sony Boycott on April 16

Say you're a hacker trying to cripple a major electronics company for suing its own users: how do you launch a cyberattack without harming the people you're trying to protect?

In the case of hactivist group 'Anonymous,' which has spent the week to retaliate against Sony's ongoing lawsuits against PlayStation 3 modifiers, you take it offline.

Anonymous is staging a 24-hour, in-store boycott at Sony stores around world on Saturday, April 16. So far over 1,000 people have RSVP'd through Facebook.

On Monday, Anonymous launched a DDoS attack on Sony that rendered the PlayStation Network (PSN) inaccessible for most of the day (while an Anonymous offshoot calling itself targeted individual Sony employees). But after consumers complained that the takedown was doing more harm than good to gamers, Anonymous reversed the hack and took down the Sony Careers page instead. Sony has remained tight-lipped about the hack, only acknowledging the "possibility" of an attack to GameSpot.

"Anonymous is not attacking the PSN at this time. Sony's official position is that the PSN is undergoing maintenance. We realize 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 wrote in a blog post.

What does Anonymous want from Sony? For starters, to allow PS3 owners to be able to modify their own consoles and share their findings online. It also wants Sony to stop pursuing lawsuits against several well-known PS3 hackers:

In January, Sony sued 23-year-old George 'Geohot' Hotz for exposing the root key to a PS3, allowing users to develop and play homebrew games. His case has been well-documented, partly due to Hotz' appearances on talk shows and homemade anti-Sony rap videos posted on YouTube. Unphased by consumer anger, Sony recently received permission to subpoena PayPal for Hotz' records.

Meanwhile in late February, German police raided the home of Egorenkov, who is best known for reverse-engineering the PS3 and researching security loopholes in the console. Sony later sued Egorenkov for one million euros ($1.4 million) for publishing the findings of his research, known as the "Hypervisor Bible," online.

Anonymous is a coalition of hackers operating under the name "Operation Payback." It has taken on such targets as , , and PayPal, the Recording Industry Association of America, , and .