The hacktivist group Anonymous is planning a set of sit-ins at Sony stores on April 16, in response to the company's legal actions against hacker George Hotz.

Sony Computer Entertainment America filed a lawsuit against Hotz, otherwise known as GeoHot, in January. The suit claims that Hotz violated the company's copyrights and California law by publishing code that allows the Sony PlayStation 3 to run other operating systems and by extension, pirated software.

The protest was announced on a Facebook page called Operation Sony. It has a list of Sony locations in various cities. There is also a public Facebook page called Operation Boycott Sony.it isn't clear the pages are connected, though they both bear statements from Anonymous. The Operation Sony page doesn't say exactly what the kind of action will accompany the sit-in - called an in-store boycott-or even if there is any at all planned.

Anonymous had mounted denial of service attacks on Sony web sites last week, though the attacks had little effect. However, the group later issued a statement saying they were not attacking the PlayStation network, and that targeting it was not a good idea. The group reiterated that it was standing up for the rights of consumers.

Hotz and Sony reached a settlement today, but it appears Anonymous still plans to go ahead with the sit-in.

Facebook Lawsuit Electronics Iphone