The Interview

[Nique]

Sony is getting a lot of flak for pulling it's distribution of 'The Interview' but I'm not sure it's really appropriate to make fun of them for it because like, the company is , ostensibly making a decsion considering the safety of it's employees and audience?

It's maybe not the most advisable move (considering new demands/threats occurring due to their "compliance") but it's not really their job to stand up to terrorists.

---------- Post added at 11:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:52 AM ----------

But also, like, fuck NK's "government".

[Solid Snake]

I'm honestly not convinced that North Korea has any involvement in this case.

[phil_]

The FBI said they did and supported their answer (essentially, "It looks a lot like other attacks we 'know' North Korea launched in the past"). Not exactly air-tight, case-closed; but it's not like they're the CIA, either.

Mostly I'm not sure whether you didn't know we had more than internet rumors at this point, or if you're specifically saying "lolFBI."

[Aerozord]

With international cyber-terrorism being what it is we are as close to a "yes they did it" as we will ever get.

I'm mostly with Nique on this. While I, in their shoes, would still show it I cant blame them for the decision. Make not mistake this was not something done lightly, this is a company flushing tens if not hundreds of millions down the tubes.

I just want to know who made this call. It would make more sense to me if it was the higher ups since Japan has a much more legitimate fear of North Korea.

[Solid Snake]

Here is the alternative perspective


North Korea's a very convenient bogeyman to blame because we know so little about it, but I'm more inclined to believe that it's either an inside job, an unaffiliated group of hackers conveniently linking themselves through manufactured circumstantial evidence to North Korea, or if North Korea is somehow involved, they have to be getting outside help of some sort.

At any rate, I don't believe the narrative that it's North Korean terrorist threats that are stopping the release of the movie. We've had terror threats related to movie releases before, and North Korea simply doesn't have sufficient presence within the U.S. to pull something like this. Independent theaters outside the major vendors are scoffing at the threats, and the entire narrative of the major theaters immediately pulling the product -- leading to Sony accepting full loss without much of a fight -- just seems so convenient.

I think it's far more likely that the hackers -- North Korean or not -- have threatened to link more information that powers-that-be desperately don't want released. If you're in the top 1% of wealth earners in the U.S. or Japan, you're far more concerned with damaging links of potentially incriminating information than you're concerned about the nebulous improbability of a terrorist attack. And nothing about the terror threat has been sufficiently substantiated. Something this flimsy usually doesn't shut down hundreds of millions of dollars of economic flow.

[Nikose Tyris]

Oh hey it's Sabu. Glad to see they cleaned up.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

I think it's far more likely that the hackers -- North Korean or not -- have threatened to link more information that powers-that-be desperately don't want released. If you're in the top 1% of wealth earners in the U.S. or Japan, you're far more concerned with damaging links of potentially incriminating information than you're concerned about the nebulous improbability of a terrorist attack. And nothing about the terror threat has been sufficiently substantiated. Something this flimsy usually doesn't shut down hundreds of millions of dollars of economic flow.

That doesn't hold water to me. If they just wanted the movie pulled from fear of an information leak they wouldn't need to blame North Korea period. They could make any number of excuses. Plus this would also require Sony, a Japanese company I might add, to have enough political clout to have the FBI fabricate their own findings.

Even if they could, what conceivable thing could they possibly leak that would justify losing a hundred million dollars and ticking off alot of stockholders.

[Marc v4.0]

http://antiwar.com/blog/2014/12/18/s...the-interview/

Emails Reveal US State Department Influenced Sony’s “The Interview” so as to Encourage Assassination and Regime Change in North Korea

As the report’s headline states, “Sony Emails Say State Department Blessed Kim Jong-Un Assassination in ‘The Interview.’” The emails also reveal that a RAND corporation senior defense analyst who consulted on the film went beyond “blessing” and outright influenced the end of the film, encouraging the CEO of Sony Entertainment to leave the assassination scene as it was (in spite of misgivings at Sony) for the sake of encouraging North Koreans to actually assassinate Kim Jong-Un and depose his regime when the movie eventually leaks into that country. According to the Sony CEO, a senior US State Department official emphatically and personally seconded that advice and reasoning in a separate correspondence

I don't believe the FBI for a moment, this sets off 'Plan B' alarm bells.

[Azisien]

A) This is how Sony should have responded (Marv, at 30s):



B) Even if it is some Games of Thrones plot to bring down North Korea... Good. It's a shithole of a place, and though the US is about as garbage of a country to introduce positive change as is possible, it only goes up from North Korea.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Azisien

B) Even if it is some Games of Thrones plot to bring down North Korea... Good. It's a shithole of a place, and though the US is about as garbage of a country to introduce positive change as is possible, it only goes up from North Korea.

I'm not sure that's what's really going on either -- a movie of all sources is extremely unlikely to have any impact on North Korea at all, let alone inspire regime change.

I do think it's interesting that the U.S. government actively encouraged the antagonistic script that led to the presumed hacking.