Irritating, painful, expensive? Choose your favorite word to describe your experience as a Sony customer, I guess.

but by all means keep hiding behind this tired old excuse that the end result is to hurt Sony

It's not an excuse, it's a hope. I sincerely hope that this will hurt Sony's bottom line in the near future. I hope that some time soon, the general public will associate Sony with being screwed over, and that they factor that in with the price of that shiny PS3 they want. I hope that Sony will be humbled and beg customers to come back, rather than treating them like shit. This is hardly the first time Sony's customers have been screwed by Sony's customer-hostile policies, so I don't expect it, but I certainly do hope for it.

The people you're trying to help will have no sympathy when you're caught and sentenced.

When I'm caught and sentenced? For schadenfreude, or do you think I'm behind this attack? My handle is easily associated with my meatspace ID; if anybody that mattered thought I was behind this, I'd most certainly be chatting with the FBI right now instead of with you.