Vice:
It is mind boggling to me, particularly when you compare it to real things that have actually happened. Someone killed 12 people and shot another 70 people at the opening night of Batman: The Dark Knight. They kept that movie in the theaters. You issue an anonymous cyber threat that you did not have the capability to carry out? We pulled a movie from 18,000 theaters.
There’s probably no worse way for Sony to have handled this. Incredible how messed up this has become.
In fairness to Sony, they just closed the barn door after all the cows had already left. After all the major theater chains said they wouldn’t be airing the movie, Sony was left holding their dicks anyway.
This country has lost its mind.
I have to wonder if a bunch of lawyers and insurance companies were involved in this “decision”.
Canceling the movie is the only logical move Sony can make at this time.
Though, if I was in charge, I would leak the movie via BitTorrent pretending this is part of the leaked data and also saying that we’re not linked to the warnings from the guardian of peace. This gives the OK to sony to go ahead and release the movie because the warning has no merit.
I don’t think comparisons to the Dark Knight have any merit. It’s not as though the shooting actually had anything to do with the movie (it wasn’t a terrorist group protesting the release of the film, but rather an isolated nut job that happened to choose that movie since there would be a lot of people there).
Sony obviously made the decision that it was better to take a total loss on this film rather than release it and possibly have it cause some sort of huge incident. I can’t entirely disagree with that decision, although it really shouldn’t have gotten to this point in the first place.
I think this was a good decision. Perhaps safe rather than gutsy, but a good decision none the less. Theaters were cancelling. The company is already reeling from the effects of this hack.
Exactly. Why is everyone criticizing only Sony? Cineplex and other movie chains are getting a pass? Incredible how messed up that is.
Bit disingenuous to call out Sony in this post. All major theater chains had already decided not to show the movie. What choice did Sony have?
Sony probably would have gone ahead with the release if it had the only say in the matter. The chains that dropped the film, and the uncertainty if more would, or if the public at large would not show up out of fear, led to Sony’s decision.
Further, most of the press on the hack has been of embarrassing items to Sony execs, and those execs whining about the press actually writing about the content of these leaks. So now Sony gets to retool their PR for the eventual rescheduled release as “The movie that North Korea doesn’t want you to see”
BTW, what form has this “threat” come in ? How/where was it made? How credible is it? It’s a far cry from hacking into an executive’s computer, and bit-torrenting an unreleased movie to terrorism.
My fear is this incident will be overhyped to help the MPAA’s lobbying efforts at controlling the internet.
Remember also that Sony is a Japanese company, and North Korea (the implicit source of the threat) might have some threat credibility in Japan.
Too bad the Sonys and AMCs of the world are such chickensh*ts. Would have been fun to do 3 things that NK hackers can’t do:
“There’s probably no worse way for Sony to have handled this.”
Time will tell. After all the publicity the movie is getting, Sony could release the movie next year, say in late spring, after months of media bloviating. This is publicity that money can’t buy.
But Sony would only be able to release it if and when the hackers are identified and if their credibility is found to be low and if there aren’t more embarrassing bits of Sony data to be posted.
And, honestly, if the hacking incident hadn’t happened, I would have just waited for it to hit Netflix anyway. Even with my huge crush on Lizzy Caplan.
This is a good point. North Korea literally lobs missiles toward Japan for no reason other than to show that it can. Imagine what it might do if it was provoked. These are not rational people.
i agree in principle with the idea that we shouldn’t capitulate to terrorist threats, but I think you have to examine all sides of the issue.
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Ben Franklin
Been paraphrased often, but too often when we surrender a bit of our freedom (liberty, rights, common sense, etc) we never get it back. And then they want more of it, making another threat.