Japan, I have a solution for you and Sony

Dear Mister Prime Minister Kan, the history of Japan in 2011 may well look like a series of biblical plagues. Not only has the tragedy of your natural disasters been compounded by financial crisis, but your flagship electronics giant has been stopped cold by cyber criminal activity. I refer of course to the 70-plus million Sony PSN customers who may be under attack by data thieves. With respect, I believe you could invoke your "Samurai DNA" (my old friend, the late science fiction author Frank Herbert calls it genetic memory) and turn a tremendous liability into a transcending asset. This could be done by issuing Letters of Marque and Reprisal to a few trusted "Samurai Cyber Privateers" and publicly indemnifying all Sony PSN customers against criminal loss. By applying my Cyber Privateer Code to the perpetrators, and by splitting the resultant spoils 50-50 with them, you could benefit from a substantial (and badly needed) capital infusion. This is especially true if you discover that the Sony data piracy was the sponsored by a foreign government, since your cyber privateers could also confiscate the accessible assets of that host government. In which case they could leave an equivalent of the following notification (per paragraph 5) of the Cyber Privateer Code:

And see tomorrow's post for one more action item: You should call Larry Ellison!

Sincerely yours.