The hackers win: Sony cancels release of 'The Interview' as movie theaters bail

The hackers win: Sony cancels release of 'The Interview' as movie theaters bail
Just hours after major U.S. theater chains said they would not screen the film following terrorists threats, Sony has canceled the release of 'The Interview,' a comedy in which Seth Rogen and James Franco are sent to North Korea to assassinate Kim Jong Un.

The movie had been scheduled for release on December 25th.



Earlier today we reported that Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Carmike Cinemas, and Cineplex Entertainment all blocked showings of the new film, which would have accounted for 23,000 screens in North America.

Reads Sony's statement: "In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release. We respect and understand our partners' decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theater-goers.

Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale – all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like. 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. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome."


The hackers behind the cyberattack that has paralyzed Sony Pictures posted a threat telling any viewer of the film to "remember the 11th of September 2001" and that movie theaters would be the targets.

'The Interview' is not the first victim of the North Korean-led attack on Sony Pictures. Over 100 terabytes of data was stolen including social security numbers, contracts, pre-release films, and hundreds of thousands of emails.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Dec 2014 19:39
Tags
Sony Pictures The Interview
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  • 23 comments
  • Amiga4000

    North Korea isn't dumb enough to commit a terrorist attack over a stupid comedy.

    17.12.2014 21:48 #1

  • DOS_equis

    Originally posted by Amiga4000: North Korea isn't dumb enough to commit a terrorist attack over a stupid comedy. The dictator Kim Jong Un is dumb enough to do whatever he feels like to whoever he feels like. That is the way of life over there I suspect and he is just flexing his muscles and stomping around like a little brat toddler that doesn't get what he wants. It's unfortunate that he has forced Sony to react this way but there is a lot of uncertainty in if they would or could actually pull off a terrorist act this massive. If so, Sony and all of the theaters would have blood on their hands. It sucks they had to do it but I can understand why they chose to. They basically had no theaters that were going to show it so it was going to end up as a direct-to-video release at that point. Too much risk and bad press on top of all of the current happy stories surrounding Sony at the moment.

    17.12.2014 23:36 #2

  • Skullet

    "'The Interview' is not the first victim of the North Korean-led attack on Sony Pictures"

    Do you have any evidence to back up that assertion? As far as I'm aware there is zero evidence linking North Korea to the hack, but if you know differently please share, otherwise stick to writing about stuff you can prove.

    I've got no sympathy for Sony as a company, I still recall the George Hotz case where Sony demanded youtube and other sites hand over IP addresses and any other identifiable data for anyone that had viewed videos that Hotz posted on youtube or other sites. Even now they are throwing their weight around threatening to crush news websites that post stuff about the hacks. They really are a nasty organisation, so it is somewhat entertaining to watch them getting spanked this hard, and hopefully it continues.

    Oh yeah and Rootkit, lest we forget.

    18.12.2014 00:22 #3

  • TrinUK

    Interesting developement.

    I guess the moral of the story is? don't screw with the North Koreans because they are not pussies after all.

    What Sony should have done is leak the movie free onto a torrent as payback. LOL

    Trin - Making Digital Waves

    18.12.2014 06:52 #4

  • DOS_equis

    Originally posted by TrinUK: Interesting developement.

    What Sony should have done is leak the movie free onto a torrent as payback. LOL
    ^^This^^.

    It's still not too late for this to happen but considering Sony's history in fighting against pirates I can't imagine them coming to the dark side just once even if it has merit. Their brains would implode before they could post it up on KAT. :)


    18.12.2014 07:43 #5

  • indianman

    Not releasing it in theaters is one thing but to not ever put this movie out on DVD is another thing. I would have liked to have seen this movie and now no body except those who made it will ever get to see this film.

    18.12.2014 10:15 #6

  • lindtech

    Sony seems to be run by a bunch of gutless wimps!

    18.12.2014 10:55 #7

  • pufff

    Originally posted by Skullet: Do you have any evidence to back up that assertion? As far as I'm aware there is zero evidence linking North Korea to the hack, but if you know differently please share, otherwise stick to writing about stuff you can prove. Unless you are North Korean, try to just put two and two together and I'm sure you will figure it out. Everyone else did.

    Here's another interesting read on the subject, also written by Andre. Check it out

    http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.c...y-pictures-hack

    18.12.2014 11:09 #8

  • ichido

    Originally posted by Amiga4000: North Korea isn't dumb enough to commit a terrorist attack over a stupid comedy. If you don't think so, you are sadly mistaken. But they are stupid enough over a dumb comedy. They don't know what comedy is.

    18.12.2014 14:28 #9

  • ichido

    Originally posted by Skullet: "The Interview is not the first victim of the North Korean-led attack on Sony Pictures"

    Do you have any evidence to back up that assertion? As far as Im aware there is zero evidence linking North Korea to the hack, but if you know differently please share, otherwise stick to writing about stuff you can prove.

    Ive got no sympathy for Sony as a company, I still recall the George Hotz case where Sony demanded youtube and other sites hand over IP addresses and any other identifiable data for anyone that had viewed videos that Hotz posted on youtube or other sites. Even now they are throwing their weight around threatening to crush news websites that post stuff about the hacks. They really are a nasty organisation, so it is somewhat entertaining to watch them getting spanked this hard, and hopefully it continues.

    Oh yeah and Rootkit, lest we forget.
    I agree with you about Sony. But when these hackers start mentioning Sept/11 2001, they should all be sent to Gitmo. Like someone else said all this over a dumb comedy movie.

    18.12.2014 14:32 #10

  • Mereinid

    Originally posted by TrinUK: Interesting developement.

    I guess the moral of the story is? don't screw with the North Koreans because they are not pussies after all.

    What Sony should have done is leak the movie free onto a torrent as payback. LOL
    yes! That would be so wonderfully chaotic of them..

    "Courage is being scared to death, then saddling up anyway." John Wayne

    18.12.2014 15:07 #11

  • beanos66

    Originally posted by DOS_equis: Originally posted by TrinUK: Interesting developement.

    What Sony should have done is leak the movie free onto a torrent as payback. LOL
    ^^This^^.

    It's still not too late for this to happen but considering Sony's history in fighting against pirates I can't imagine them coming to the dark side just once even if it has merit. Their brains would implode before they could post it up on KAT. :)

    Sony probably won't

    but seth may

    18.12.2014 18:21 #12

  • Skullet

    Originally posted by pufff: Originally posted by Skullet: Do you have any evidence to back up that assertion? As far as I'm aware there is zero evidence linking North Korea to the hack, but if you know differently please share, otherwise stick to writing about stuff you can prove. Unless you are North Korean, try to just put two and two together and I'm sure you will figure it out. Everyone else did.

    Here's another interesting read on the subject, also written by Andre. Check it out

    http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.c...y-pictures-hack
    Another flimsy article by the same author isn't really proving the point.

    Also that's the problem here people are simply jumping to conclusions based on articles like this one, there is an equal amount out there that take the opposite view. Regardless it makes sense for US authorities to blame North Korea as it distracts attention away from the fact they don't actually have a clue who did it, blaming North Korea gets them off the hook as there is zero they can do about it so can effectively put the case to bed, the alternative is an embarrassing failure to catch the real perpetrators after a lengthy investigation.

    We already know the FBI is terrible at catching hackers, and only usually does so when one of them makes a stupid mistake then turns on his mates, ala Sabu, or DDoS'ers who didn't have a clue what they were doing.

    18.12.2014 23:00 #13

  • Skullet

    Originally posted by ichido: Originally posted by Skullet: "The Interview is not the first victim of the North Korean-led attack on Sony Pictures"

    Do you have any evidence to back up that assertion? As far as Im aware there is zero evidence linking North Korea to the hack, but if you know differently please share, otherwise stick to writing about stuff you can prove.

    Ive got no sympathy for Sony as a company, I still recall the George Hotz case where Sony demanded youtube and other sites hand over IP addresses and any other identifiable data for anyone that had viewed videos that Hotz posted on youtube or other sites. Even now they are throwing their weight around threatening to crush news websites that post stuff about the hacks. They really are a nasty organisation, so it is somewhat entertaining to watch them getting spanked this hard, and hopefully it continues.

    Oh yeah and Rootkit, lest we forget.
    I agree with you about Sony. But when these hackers start mentioning Sept/11 2001, they should all be sent to Gitmo. Like someone else said all this over a dumb comedy movie.
    Yeah the 9/11 thing was a bit much and unnecessary. But I suspect it also points to this not being North Korea, as the messages and stuff they have been putting out are wildly different and hint at it being more like an Anonymous type setup where you have a large collection of people with different views and agendas moving loosely in the same direction, hence conflicting messages are common as no one person is leading the charge.

    I also don't think this had anything to do with the movie, as they only started mentioning that after the media speculated that was the reason for the hack, it makes sense for the people who committed the hack to have as many red herrings as possible, one of the corner stones of solving a crime is to understand the motive for it, if no one is clear on what the motive was it muddies the waters and makes it difficult to determine who was responsible.

    18.12.2014 23:11 #14

  • DVDBack23

    Originally posted by Skullet: Do you have any evidence to back up that assertion? As far as I'm aware there is zero evidence linking North Korea to the hack, but if you know differently please share, otherwise stick to writing about stuff you can prove. The articles cited its source, the Wall Street Journal. Every other large media outlet reads the same. The U.S. blames NK for the attack. If you have an issue with that, please take it up with the U.S. government and cite your reasons for believing it was another entity.

    18.12.2014 23:55 #15

  • Skullet

    Originally posted by DVDBack23: Originally posted by Skullet: Do you have any evidence to back up that assertion? As far as I'm aware there is zero evidence linking North Korea to the hack, but if you know differently please share, otherwise stick to writing about stuff you can prove. The articles cited its source, the Wall Street Journal. Every other large media outlet reads the same. The U.S. blames NK for the attack. If you have an issue with that, please take it up with the U.S. government and cite your reasons for believing it was another entity. Yes and we all know most media outlets receive the same news packets and most of the time report them verbatim with zero fact checking, do I need to link you to several hilarious youtube videos demonstrating this?

    Also you should read my previous posts, pretty sure I cited plenty of reasons, in fact I specifically countered the points you are failing to make.

    19.12.2014 00:14 #16

  • DVDBack23

    Originally posted by Skullet: Originally posted by DVDBack23: Originally posted by Skullet: Do you have any evidence to back up that assertion? As far as I'm aware there is zero evidence linking North Korea to the hack, but if you know differently please share, otherwise stick to writing about stuff you can prove. The articles cited its source, the Wall Street Journal. Every other large media outlet reads the same. The U.S. blames NK for the attack. If you have an issue with that, please take it up with the U.S. government and cite your reasons for believing it was another entity. Yes and we all know most media outlets receive the same news packets and most of the time report them verbatim with zero fact checking, do I need to link you to several hilarious youtube videos demonstrating this?

    Also you should read my previous posts, pretty sure I cited plenty of reasons, in fact I specifically countered the points you are failing to make.
    For the record, I do not believe North Korea perpetrated this attack, either. However, the U.S. government's opinion means more than mine in this situation.

    19.12.2014 00:58 #17

  • Skullet

    Originally posted by DVDBack23: Originally posted by Skullet: Originally posted by DVDBack23: Originally posted by Skullet: Do you have any evidence to back up that assertion? As far as I'm aware there is zero evidence linking North Korea to the hack, but if you know differently please share, otherwise stick to writing about stuff you can prove. The articles cited its source, the Wall Street Journal. Every other large media outlet reads the same. The U.S. blames NK for the attack. If you have an issue with that, please take it up with the U.S. government and cite your reasons for believing it was another entity. Yes and we all know most media outlets receive the same news packets and most of the time report them verbatim with zero fact checking, do I need to link you to several hilarious youtube videos demonstrating this?

    Also you should read my previous posts, pretty sure I cited plenty of reasons, in fact I specifically countered the points you are failing to make.
    For the record, I do not believe North Korea perpetrated this attack, either. However, the U.S. government's opinion means more than mine in this situation.
    Why? I can't think of a single situation where the US governments opinion would mean more than mine or yours, quite the opposite. Since we now have more insight into the despicable practices of the US government why would anyone trust anything they have to say?

    No, your opinion matters far more than the US governments, at least until your credibility is utterly destroyed to the same extent as theirs, so unless you have a mass spying program and are torturing people with impunity, then I think you'll be ok, and as such I'll take your opinion over theirs any day of the week.

    19.12.2014 01:22 #18

  • Skullet

    I should also point out that I wasn't intending to be rude in my previous posts, I just find it hugely irritating when the media skews the narrative by continually repeating the same unproven facts, if you say something enough times then people simply accept it as fact.

    Worse still is when they cite other media outlets as the source, as you then have a self perpetuating circle of BS that just grows and grows, regardless of the veracity of the claims.

    I feel it is everyone's duty to stamp all over these practices where possible, otherwise we are on the wrong side of a slippery slope.

    19.12.2014 01:37 #19

  • pufff

    But on a positive note, we are now spared the torture of seeing another crappy Seth Rogan movie.

    Maybe the hackers just really hated his movies.

    19.12.2014 02:20 #20

  • KillerBug

    Originally posted by DOS_equis: Originally posted by Amiga4000: North Korea isn't dumb enough to commit a terrorist attack over a stupid comedy. The dictator Kim Jong Un is dumb enough to do whatever he feels like to whoever he feels like. That is the way of life over there I suspect and he is just flexing his muscles and stomping around like a little brat toddler that doesn't get what he wants. It's unfortunate that he has forced Sony to react this way but there is a lot of uncertainty in if they would or could actually pull off a terrorist act this massive. If so, Sony and all of the theaters would have blood on their hands. It sucks they had to do it but I can understand why they chose to. They basically had no theaters that were going to show it so it was going to end up as a direct-to-video release at that point. Too much risk and bad press on top of all of the current happy stories surrounding Sony at the moment. Sony...
    Rootkit, OtherOS removal, attacking people for using their owned products how they wanted to, bribed a judge to say that Toyota could disable hybrid functionality on the Prius (and therefor it is OK for Sony to remove OtherOS), dropped PS3 fan speeds for older models by firmware update, massive leak of customer data, massive leak of employee data...

    And now they are encouraging people to hack into large networks, steal whatever they like, release whatever they like, and then make terrorist threats and commit extortion.

    It's going to be hard for sony to top this one, but I'm sure they will find a way. Maybe their humanoid robot thing could be programmed to KILL ALL HUMANS and released by the thousands upon some unsuspecting populous. Or maybe they could make the software for a reactor, then use a built in back door to cause a major meltdown. Yeah, I'm sure Sony is already planning how they will top this one.

    Originally posted by TrinUK: Interesting developement.

    I guess the moral of the story is? don't screw with the North Koreans because they are not pussies after all.

    What Sony should have done is leak the movie free onto a torrent as payback. LOL
    No one thought the NK government were pussies...we thought they were raving nutjobs. If they actually did this just to stop a movie that depicted them as the victims of a CIA assassination plot, then they have proven their nutjobity once again.

    Originally posted by Skullet: Why? I can't think of a single situation where the US governments opinion would mean more than mine or yours, quite the opposite. Since we now have more insight into the despicable practices of the US government why would anyone trust anything they have to say?

    No, your opinion matters far more than the US governments, at least until your credibility is utterly destroyed to the same extent as theirs, so unless you have a mass spying program and are torturing people with impunity, then I think you'll be ok, and as such I'll take your opinion over theirs any day of the week.
    Why does the US government's official line hold weight? Because we KNOW they will do whatever they like. To this day I don't know the official reason for going into Iraq...I think George W lost track of the lie. As far as I know, NK has never nuked anyone...the US has twice (not including forcefully removing people from their homes and then nuking the empty homes). NK has a tiny army of poorly fed and poorly armed soldiers. The US has a MASSIVE army, probably the best in the world...at least the most expensive. We are the bullies of the world...NK would be worse with the same army, but they don't have it. Me, I have no army. That's the world we live in...if you cannot force someone to say they agree with you, you don't matter. It doesn't matter if you agree with me or with DVDBack23 or Obama or Bush or some nutjob NK leader...because you don't have an army and you cannot afford to hire blackwater. All your option is worth is one vote in a massive election that will be at least partially rigged since the voting machines that were proven to be easily hacked while bush was still in office have never been updated and the democrats keep fighting ID laws because without them they get a lot more votes from dead people.

    Welcome to America...god bless her...soon please.[/rant]

    20.12.2014 13:59 #21

  • ChappyTTV

    Originally posted by KillerBug: nutjobity

    I LOVE this word you made up :)

    Originally posted by KillerBug: NK has a tiny army of poorly fed and poorly armed soldiers This is where you're wrong tho, NK has one of the largest standing armies (4th) in the World today and are very heavily armed. NK soldiers are also probably the best fed people in the country, other than the fat cats like Kim Jong Un and his pals.

    20.12.2014 21:40 #22

  • DOS_equis

    Hooray!

    https://kickass.so/usearch/the%20interview%20category:movies/

    24.12.2014 22:26 #23

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