

If Sony Hack Wanted to Stop 'The Interview' Release, It Worked - sammorrowdrums
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30526406

======
sremani
They are able to stop not because they are worried about another 9/11, but if
something happens, the class-action suits will fly all over, that scares the
theaters. So, in essence its not the North Korean dictator or his minions, but
the good old lawyers of US&A.

~~~
3am
What you are doing is "victim blaming". It's not Sony's fault. It's not the
theaters' faults. It's not the lawyers's faults.

It is the fault of the people threatening violence against moviegoers.

edit: I'm not commenting on the overly litigious culture of the US or easily
panicked mentality over any threat. Those are fair critiques of the US.
However, both of those would be moot if it were not for a credible threat of
violence from some person/group. This philosophy of culpability pre-dates the
US legal system.

~~~
na85
No, the fault really does lie with the overly-litigious culture of the US.

Did you know that if you graduate from med school in Canada, they advise you
not to step forward if you're on a US flight and someone asks if there's a
doctor on the plane?

Because you'll get sued.

~~~
3am
Citation, please.

~~~
hysan
I'd be interested to see such a citation as well. Quick searching shows that
the US (and other countries such as Canada and the UK) have Good Samaritan
laws that protect doctors assisting people in such situations. Specifically:

"The Aviation Medical Assistance Act of 1998 ensures that if you're flying in
the United States, even if the airline is not owned by a U.S. company, you
have Good Samaritan protection."[1]

I also found one article interviewing a doctor who answered the call who
mentioned that no physician has been successfully sued for assisting in an
inflight medical emergency.[2] A claim that he actually backs up with a
citation.[3]

[1]
[http://www.aafp.org/fpm/2008/0400/p37.html](http://www.aafp.org/fpm/2008/0400/p37.html)

[2]
[http://www.cockeyed.com/personal/doctor_airplane/doctor_airp...](http://www.cockeyed.com/personal/doctor_airplane/doctor_airplane.html)

[3]
[http://methodistanesthesia.com/Articles/Article_25.pdf](http://methodistanesthesia.com/Articles/Article_25.pdf)

------
searine
I don't believe for a second that the Sony hack was North Korea.

It was a made up story to cover up their shitty security.

~~~
Someone1234
The North Korean story has all kinds of issues:

\- North Korea is not that technologically sophisticated (at least compared to
China or Russia, for example).

\- North Korea has very limited internet access in general.

\- It is highly likely the few internet pipes NK has are being heavily
monitored.

\- NK has bigger fish to fry, frankly. They can easily control this movie
within their borders and they've ignored previous movies that made fun of them
(World Police?).

If it is a NK supporter or supporters I doubt they're located physically
within NK. But I suspect this was just a random hacker who decided to blame it
on NK/the movie for the lolz.

~~~
dmix
A hand-picked group of say 5 kids from within NK, given special training for
years and access to lots of resources could easily pull off what happened at
Sony. None of your points are things that would stop a small special ops team
from pulling off the Sony hack. Nor would it have required a significant
reason or investment.

Simply because the alternative is that a small group of semi-sophisticated
non-state backed hackers could also pull if off. To say that NK can't acquire
or won't utilize similar capabilities is a bit naive.

What we need is evidence that it wasn't NK than even more endless conjecture
here.

See also "In North Korea, Hackers Are a Handpicked, Pampered Elite"

[http://recode.net/2014/12/07/in-north-korea-hackers-are-a-
ha...](http://recode.net/2014/12/07/in-north-korea-hackers-are-a-handpicked-
pampered-elite/)

~~~
xienze
Nah, I just don't see a country that isolated and impoverished having the
resources and talent necessary to do any major damage through hacking. They
may very well claim to have l33t hax0rz but just like everything else their
claimed superiority and reality don't quite line up.

Now, I would not be surprised if they had help from China, but I really doubt
NK did this themselves.

------
jonpaul
Have any of you read the book: Trust Me I'm Lying
([http://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions-
Manipulator...](http://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions-
Manipulator/dp/1591846285))? I have not, but have had many discussions with
friends who have read it. It's my understanding that the premise of the book
is that mainstream media isn't as relevant as they use to be due to the rise
of blogs; mainstream media picks up stories from a lot of blogs. Many of these
stories are planted there by media manipulators to drum up controversy and
thus increase sales.

Admittedly, I don't have evidence to suggest this, but I wouldn't be surprised
if this was just a publicity stunt.

 __Edit: __I 'm not claiming the hack was a publicity stunt, I'm claiming that
I wouldn't be surprised if the cancelation of the movie was a publicity stunt.

~~~
skwirl
You think Sony leaked their employees' SSNs and salaries as part of a
publicity stunt?

~~~
jonpaul
No, of course not! I wasn't referring to the hack as a publicity stunt, I was
referring to the cancelation of the movie.

~~~
dmix
Totally agree, this is going to do wonders for movie sales.

This is almost legendary PR to have for a film, despite the big cost of the
hack (for which it will still no doubt be net negative).

------
k-mcgrady
Pretty amazing that they've been able to stop this. It's amazing in all the
wrong ways.

P.S. Actual article title: "Sony cancels The Interview release amid threats"

~~~
DamnYuppie
I am truly saddened for free speech. Doesn't anyone realize that capitulating
to threats is the worst thing one can do, it only emboldens the idiots
further.

~~~
yuncun
This isn't really a matter of free speech.

Unless of course, you are suggesting that North Korea (accused) is infringing
on your freedom of speech. In that case, maybe we can organize a sit-in or
something.

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chaostheory
Overall, this is just great publicity for the movie. I predict that in the
long run, it will be successful financially. Before, I just wanted to wait for
it to get to Netflix or Amazon. Now I want to see it when possible.

~~~
Someone1234
I doubt Sony care at this stage. The damage this has done is far more
significant than one single movie. Even if the movie is a runaway success,
they won't look back on this episode fondly.

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PaulHoule
What's the magnet URI for it?

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shawndumas
they should make it available for downloading. that would protect their
partners and defy the hackers all in one shot.

~~~
mayneack
Some critics have seen it, so there might be some screeners out there floating
around waiting to be uploaded:
[http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_interview_2014/](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_interview_2014/)

~~~
baddox
I believe that the reviews are coming from press screenings in cinemas. I
don't think screeners for (intended) wide releases are generally sent to
critics before the theatrical release.

------
james33
It is really sad what kind of precedent this is setting. Hollywood is already
too risk-averse as it is, and now it is going to get even worse.

~~~
matti3
Agreed... This is a terrible precedent that only show everyone in the world
how easily we fall back on our principles and values.

I think that Judd Apatow and Jimmy Kimmel said it best on twitter..

"I think it is disgraceful that these theaters are not showing The Interview.
Will they pull any movie that gets an anonymous threat now?" \- Judd Apatow

" @JuddApatow I agree wholeheartedly. An un-American act of cowardice that
validates terrorist actions and sets a terrifying precedent." \- Jimmy Kimmel

[https://twitter.com/jimmykimmel/status/545311021443715072](https://twitter.com/jimmykimmel/status/545311021443715072)

------
ChildOfChaos
This makes me so ____ing angry it 's unreal.

Sony needs to grow some balls, this is growing into a complete and utter joke.
This is the entire problem with the world right now complete and utter risk
aversion, red tape and politics.

If i was the CEO of sony, I would not dumb down the death scene, I would make
it more extreme, I would edit the film and add recent events into it along
with some dialogue that says "Screw North Korea, screw The guardians of
peace", as the credits roll up there would be a scene with some computer
geeks, a "guardians of peace banner" and something amusingly horrible
happening to them all, like being annally rapped to death by a pack of
gorillas while trying to hack into the sony website from there underground
hacking bunker.

After the credits, maybe a crying Seth Rogen after he discovers the true
damage that the guardians of peace have done... they have deleted is midget
porn collection!!!

I would do my upmost to get it in every theatre in the world that could and
any chain that refused to show it, I would withdraw rights for them to show
future big Sony releases, because basically screw them. If they're not willing
to have the balls to be awesome, then they aren't important enough to have
anything else.

This is a joke, oh no... someone read some emails and leaked them on the
internet... on no there is a movie script or two and some unrealised movies.
Oh noes they hacked our network, BIG ____ing deal.. nobody cares, it makes no
difference to anyone. Sony just got frapped and went crying to mommy. Sony
come out of this looking pathetic, I will avoid this brand in the future
unless they do something more awesome soon.

~~~
krapp
Sony is not a political entity, they're a global multimedia conglomerate. It's
not their job to make "awesome" statements defending free speech, or to turn
against their distributors, or to rage against the machine. Their job is to
make money selling, in this case, a comedy which has turned out to be more
trouble for them than it's worth (which given the unlikely franchise potential
of comedies, probably isn't much.)

------
nickhalfasleep
I could imagine them taking a patriotic tack and inviting everybody to show up
well armed to the showings. Or heck, put it up for streaming at $15 on all the
major providers, let the terrorists hit every data center between here and
Pyongyang.

~~~
Someone1234
> I could imagine them taking a patriotic tack and inviting everybody to show
> up well armed to the showings.

Because more guns is always a key to reducing violence...

~~~
nsxwolf
I've never seen an instance where armed law abiding citizens made a terrorist
attack or mass shooting worse. If you know of any, I'd love to hear about
them.

~~~
Someone1234
I cannot. I can name numerous situations where one "armed law abiding citizen"
has shot another "armed law abiding citizen." If people came armed to a movie,
I wouldn't go, not because I fear a "terrorist" attack, but because I fear
armed individuals in general.

And statistics back me up, the number of people in the US killed in terrorist
attacks is insignificant relative to the deaths from gun violence.

------
sammorrowdrums
I'm not even sure that was the goal of the hackers, but either way the fear of
lawsuits certainly carries a scary level of influence. Not sure that I like
that.

------
hellbanner
Where are these sources for "no credible intelligence" says US Government.
Says who? Why is this implicit & anonymous?

~~~
sammorrowdrums
Well, even when they have 'credible intelligence', they don't tell us, and if
they did, it would not be the whole truth, if true at all.

That statement is meaningless. It's just the gov saying "if something does
happen, we swear we didn't know, but we're not saying it's going to happen"...

------
MrZongle2
Profiles in courage.

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DamnYuppie
They aught to release it in Texas, Molon Labe!

------
cyphunk

        We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the
        distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our
        company, our employees, and the American public.
    

I hope the spirit of "the American public" is not too badly damaged and that
they will rise above this very trying episode.

~~~
cyphunk
it should be obvious at this point that sony's gamification of this event is
part of the problem and deserves some ridicule.

------
brianstorms
What would be so cool is if theatres all got together and screened the _other_
THE INTERVIEW, the one starring Hugo Weaving. It's a 1998 Australian thriller
that got very good reviews when it came out. I doubt anyone's seen it in the
U.S.

But it has Mr. Smith / Elrond starring in it!

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interview_%281998_film%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interview_%281998_film%29)

So join with me and petition your local theatre to show THE INTERVIEW, you
know, the Hugo Weaving flick!

~~~
secabeen
I doubt enough prints remain of that film to show it in more than a few
theaters, and it probably doesn't exist in a digital-projection format.

