Sony To Release the Interview Online Today; Apple Won't Play Ball 227
An anonymous reader writes "The BBC reports: "Sony Pictures is to distribute its film The Interview online, after a cyber-attack and a row over its release. The film will be offered on a dedicated website — seetheinterview.com — as well as via Google and Microsoft services." Notably absent among the services to provide The Interview is Apple. The New York Times reports: "According to people briefed on the matter, Sony had in recent days asked the White House for help in lining up a single technology partner — Apple, which operates iTunes — but the tech company was not interested, at least not on a speedy time table. An Apple spokesman declined to comment. "
Actually.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, most notably not in the list is Netflix. The number one streaming service on the planet doesn't have it. That's the big story here.
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Actually, most notably not in the list is Netflix. The number one streaming service on the planet doesn't have it. That's the big story here.
I agree, none of the streaming services will have it (Netflix, Hulu, etc) So I expect that the piratebay + clones will have this after the first person to purchase it.
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Netflix doesn't do new stream releases. M-go used to streaming rentals for a few bucks but now everything is "BUY FOR $9.99".
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Still in talks. Non story, unless you want all news to be final, and that anything not reported will never happen.
https://variety.com/2014/digit... [variety.com]
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Netflix does not stream first-run movies... they're 3rd tier.. after Theatrical, Pay-Per-View/Pay-Per-Stream, and DVD/Blu-Ray--
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But... but... but... MUH APPLE MUH-NOPOLY!
Never mind that Sony had already pulled it and is now changing their mind at the last minute. Nope, can't let the facts get in the way of a good clickbait story.
Re:Actually.. (Score:4, Insightful)
6 bucks to see a shitty movie?
Leave it to Sony to make money from having crappy IT security...
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As opposed to paying $13 in the theater? Those bastards!
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Leave it to Sony to make money from having crappy IT security...
Sony is a long, long, long way from breaking even on this thing.
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True and it is not a reason to give them money as like it is a good cause. It isn't, There is many charities out there who deserved much more our money than a gang of monkeys who believe they achieved something for America doing a bad movie and having crappy IT security practices.
Obama is wrong when he says North Korea should pay Sony for the damages. North Korea should pay America because they did a crime on american soil, but the money should not be spend on Sony. They do not deserve it.
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I've spent more on worse movies. Took two nieces and a nephew to see "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" (in 3D) after about 30 minutes they wanted to leave because it was so terrible. Even little kids know some time it's just not worth your time to sit through horrible movies.
I expect "The Interview" to be on the level of "This is the End". Bad and completely forgettable instead of so bad it's scarring. I've seen some really bad movies this year (in no particular order): Lucy, Transformers 4, Transcend
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You might want to use a different example for your first one:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has 7.0/10 on IMDB (after 5 years), got an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, 66 on MetaCritic (with an average user score of 7.6),
It was a good movie.
"This is the End" was also pretty good with a 6.9/83%/67/7.1 (respectively).
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IMDB ratings are a complete and utter waste of time. The majority of initial ratings and reviews in the first few hours and days will be single posting ratings scoring it at 9 or 10. The same thing will occur on DVD release. So the IMDB score is just a measure of how much the dick heads at the studios are willing to spend with PR=B$ firms on deceitful reviews. Amazons sucks because it purposefully fails to fix it by allowing review and rating filters to block utterly pointless reviews and ratings. As for t
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Of the movies you listed, I've only watched Lucy and Transcendence. While I agree that Lucy is a really bad movie, I think that Transcendence was quite good. Except of the scenes following the "installing satelite drivers" scene, everything was possible to happen in the future. It doesn't give characters the "good" tag or the "bad" tag, breaking with the usual "humans good - skynet bad" principle. There are multiple characters changing sides during the movie. It shows how technology can advance humans, but
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Or it matches the Apple business model and not that of Netflix. Apple sucks.
So Apple doesn't show the movie because "it matches the Apple business model", and that's why Apple sucks. What happen to you, did Tim Cook steal your girlfriend?
So, then... (Score:4, Insightful)
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should be on the torrent sites in time for Christmas?
You can be sure that Sony will be uploading crap to pollute the torrent sites. After all, in their shoes, wouldn't you?
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You can be sure that Sony will be uploading crap to pollute the torrent sites. After all, in their shoes, wouldn't you?
How will you tell the difference from the movie then?
The torrent won't have ads for Glosettes and O'Henry Bars before the main show :-)
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should be on the torrent sites in time for Christmas?
Torrent? Probably we'll be too busy downloading the new GOP dumps (unless the "we'll allow you to release it" pastebin was genuine).
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PSN? (Score:4, Interesting)
Amazon? (Score:3)
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Is that you, Tim?
Sony could have announced this last week (Score:2)
Instead they cowardly said "we surrender", then changed their mind when they realized how everyone thought they were weak, cowards giving in to terrorists rather than responsible businessmen avoiding lawsuits.
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I imagine that Sony execs changed their minds not only because of the widespread perception of cowardice, but because they received assurances from certain government agencies.
If it was to own (Score:2)
for say $4 with out DRM I'd buy it and many others. Gimme old releases for $2 and I wont even bother with torrents to download whats in my 800+ dvd's I'll just pay for it agai and if I lose it, so be it, its so cheap I'll just re buy it. If I'm out of town and need to watch a movie but already have it at home, for $2 I'd pay for it again.
So it was a publicity stunt (Score:4, Insightful)
Right out of the playbook of "how do you market a shitty movie that has been panned by critics left and right so people would STILL want to see it, no matter how big a stinker it may be".
It's almost like they hired Uwe Boll as consultant.
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Old quote comes into play (Score:4, Insightful)
"Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my partâ
Why should Apple make people work Christmas (most core Apple employees have the week off) because Sony finally came around to the ethical course of action? Sounds like a great thing to have decided WEEKS AGO.
Re:Old quote comes into play (Score:4, Insightful)
Because if they don't, they will be viewed as cowards?
How so when it will simply come out next week. Sony already owns Coward, the other companies will put up the movie as soon as they can.
Anyway, you exaggerate the level of effort required by Apple to do the right thing.
In my world the "right thing" is not to have an Apple Employee have to take even TWO HOURS the day before Christmas to serve Sony's fickle whims.
Here's some real Tough Love - sometimes people on vacation should get to stay on vacation. THAT is the Right Thing.
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Because if they don't, they will be viewed as cowards?
How so when it will simply come out next week.
Let's see if it does.
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...you exaggerate the level of effort required by Apple to do the right thing.
In my world the "right thing" is not to have an Apple Employee have to take even TWO HOURS the day before Christmas...
Because as everybody knows, all Apple employees are special little snowflakes whose precious little lives will be completely ruined by taking even two hours on a holiday to do the right thing.
Because if Apple had called even one in, you would have made it sound worse than Pegatron.
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Because as everybody knows, all Apple employees are special little snowflakes whose precious little lives
They are human beings who deserve a break from a rough work schedule, and again what is even the point of serving Sony's 11th hour demands when a release next week has essentially the same effect? Are you truly so daft as to imagine the physical act of release means anything next to the symbolic act of simply saying the release will go ahead?
I somehow get the sense you are that daft, and perhaps far daf
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Even if they would be viewed as cowards, who is going to remember that when the next iPhone or whatever comes out? And I bet even fewer people will skip buying it because of this.
Just say no to Apple only (Score:2)
What about other Sony movies? (Score:2)
Patriotic to NOT watch it instead? (Score:3, Informative)
Kim Jung-un has:
* Inherited a position and country that was already hated.
* Behaved as expected of his culture.
* Never been known for harming anyone outside of his own country.
* Suffered insults in nearly every report about him for as long as he has lived.
* Had the majority of information about him relayed through South Korea, a hostile country.
My understanding of the North Korean culture is that the whole system works by deifying their leader. Propaganda is extremely important. With the world seemingly against their administration, it makes sense that things that trickled into their country would be highly censored. It would be stupid of them not to censor it since it could lead to unrest, civil war, doom, destruction, death, fire, lack of bacon.... and other bad things.
South Korea has already mentioned plans to take this film, put it on dvd, and float balloons across the border to incite rebellion in the population. By trying to prevent the movie from being distributed at all, North Korea is essentially trying to avoid anarchy caused by external propaganda.
Why are we so eager to overthrow their regime? Is democracy so sacred that we must ~force~ it on every country around the world? What business is it of the US (and Hollywood) to decide what is the best system? What they have there is what developed in that region. It is a system that won out over the infighting to unite their country. It might not fit our definition of "fair" for the population, but that's only our definition. It's our own view that we're extending upon them, a culture that has had to isolate itself just to keep together.
I for one will NOT be watching this film. I find the comedic insults of a leader and the trivialization of his death is in extremely poor taste, especially since he has done no wrong to me nor anyone I know. "Live and let live" is supposed to be a phrase that the citizens of the US are pushed to believe and follow, especially recently with anti-bullying and gay marriage. This film and the common national support for it spits in the face of that mantra.
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A good effort. 8.5/10
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South Korea has already mentioned plans to take this film, put it on dvd, and float balloons across the border to incite rebellion in the population.
That's nice. Do they also plan to float DVD players across the border too, so it's not just a shiny drinks coaster?
Re:Patriotic to NOT watch it instead? (Score:4, Insightful)
North Korea is a country who:
- brutalizes the majority of it's citizens for the economic and political benefit of a few.
- threatens other countries with nuclear weapons.
- threatens other countries with Internet hacking.
- uses propaganda and bizarre statements for political gain.
- deifies it leaders and makes a joke of the political process.
Oh. Wait.
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Kim Jung-un has:
* Inherited a position and country that was already hated.
* Behaved as expected of his culture.
* Never been known for harming anyone outside of his own country.
* Suffered insults in nearly every report about him for as long as he has lived.
* blah blah blah blather blather...
* Done nothing to rectify the situation because he enjoys it just as it is.
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South Korea has already mentioned plans to take this film, put it on dvd, and float balloons across the border to incite rebellion in the population. By trying to prevent the movie from being distributed at all, North Korea is essentially trying to avoid anarchy caused by external propaganda.
If a bad movie can incite rebellion in your country then your country is in a terrible, terrible place.
Why are we so eager to overthrow their regime?
Why do you think making a movie was an attempt to overthrow their regime?
Is democracy so sacred that we must ~force~ it on every country around the world? What business is it of the US (and Hollywood) to decide what is the best system? What they have there is what developed in that region. It is a system that won out over the infighting to unite their country. It might not fit our definition of "fair" for the population, but that's only our definition. It's our own view that we're extending upon them, a culture that has had to isolate itself just to keep together.
If there ever was an argument for pushing democracy on a foreign country North Korea would be it. North Koreans aren't citizens, they're prisoners, they'd actually be better off living in Orwell's 1984.
Why is the White House involved? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony had in recent days asked the White House for help in lining up a single technology partner - Apple, which operates iTunes
I'm not even sure how to react to this. Why is it that Sony, a private company, feels that the White House, the executive branch of the United States federal government, should help them seek out a technology partner? This bothers me on multiple levels. One, that Sony would feel it appropriate to ask the White House for help conducting their private corporate business. Two, that Sony expects the White House to have that level of influence over Apple, another private company.
I understand that money buys influence, and that Hollywood and Silicon Valley both historically have Democrats in their pockets (full disclosure, I voted for Obama twice, I'm not attacking Democrats). That said, I don't understand how Sony is so brazen as to assume that they can just call up the White House, ask for help, and suddenly Apple is going to capitulate to their demands. Their line of thinking goes in this direction for a reason. Either Sony has successfully coerced companies into similar relations in the past, with the White House as a mediator, or vice versa.
Sony is a corporation. Apple is a corporation. In my own experience, executives have each others' contact information and can get in touch with one another directly. I guarantee you that Sony executives have the private numbers to Apple executives, and it's up to them to work out a deal. There is absolutely no reason for Sony to involve the government in their appeals to establish a business relationship. It's corporate prostitution at the highest and most obvious level. Government "transparency," indeed.
The entire premise is disgusting to me. I for one will not be paying to see this movie on any medium.
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. That said, I don't understand how Sony is so brazen as to assume that they can just call up the White House, ask for help, and suddenly Apple is going to capitulate to their demands. Their line of thinking goes in this direction for a reason.
Indeed. In this case, the reason is that Obama has said publicly several times that he wished Sony had come to him for help before canceling the release of the movie. This is just Sony taking Obama up on his offer.
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Presidents, governors and mayors all do this kind of thing -- call up private businesses and ask them to do stuff. The mayor may call a local business and ask it to reconsider withdrawing its sponsorship of the local youth baseball league. The governor might call up union leaders and senior management in a strike, particularly if it affects things lots of people need like transit or health care.
This is the exercise of *soft* power, of influence rather than of compulsion. Obama can't call Apple and compel
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I'm not even sure how to react to this... I understand that money buys influence... Either Sony has successfully coerced companies into similar relations in the past, with the White House as a mediator, or vice versa.
Democracy = each *vote* has equal power
Capitalism = each *dollar* has equal power
We're just seeing the first half of "capitalist democracy" in action. It's how capitalism has always worked and will always work.
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Sony Pictures Entertainment is an American company whose alleged attacker is a sovereign nation.
If a sovereign nation conducted a physical attack on a person resident in the United States, the Federal government would be expected to at least be interested in the response.
In this case the sovereign nation allegedly conducted an economic attack on a corporation resident in the United States, so the Federal government should be expected to at least be interested in the response. The Federal government is seeki
It's not on PlayStation Network either!... (Score:3)
Sony isn't even streaming it on their own service for PS3/PS4!!! What are they thinking?
Isn't iTunes Connect on Autopilot for Christmas (Score:3)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Why was there an Apple ntp security released on Monday then? Who did that?
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Oh, I didn't read the links. I thought it was for all of Apple.
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Rush, eh? I hope it was tested enough to avoid being buggy. ;)
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It's not just network. Just not good as they used to be.
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Yep. Even early day with Woz were cool too since I had an //c. I wasn't a fan of early MacOS (before X) though.
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That is why I loved Mac OS X. BSD/Unix power and I know Linux. Classic Mac OS couldn't do that. Same for Apple //c's before I went to IBM side.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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where are the google and MS services (Score:2)
Dont really want to give sony my credit card number, since they get hacked once a quarter
In US only (Score:2)
duh
Editor, plz (Score:2)
They made an adaptation for online viewing called "The Interview online"?
Oh, I see. "Online" is not part of the film's title, but we italicized it as well for some reason.
What about the PlayStation Network? (Score:3)
Come on Sony, do you have the courage to distribute via your own entertainment network, or are you going to leave your PS customers out in the cold?
Let's play "I Would Rather..." (Score:2, Funny)
I Would Rather:
Circumcise myself with a chainsaw.
Masturbate with a garlic hammer.
Gouge out my eyeballs with an ice cream scoop then rinse out the sockets with battery acid.
Watch the Den & Angie episode on a continuous loop.
Braid my own pubic hair. Then garotte myself with it.
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Assuming of course that this isn't just Sony doing viral marketing.
Why not take advantage of being hacked to promote up a movie that was going to bomb hard. Create "evidence" that the subject of mocking was behind it.
Not saying that is what they are doing, but I won't be surprised to find out 6 months from now that they did.
Re:Good news! (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone should watch this movie just as an act of patriotism.
If you think watching a movie is an act of patriotism you are confused.
What's next, you will claim that an American flag decal on your pickup truck is "patriotic" ?
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No, it's the big flag he stuck in the pickup bed 13 years ago
Confederate flag.
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I've seen the flag-on-the-truck thing many times - never seen a confederate flag. While there are many in the South that still hate the damnyankees for the War of Northern Aggression, it's mostly pirate flags now. For a while I was confused - why were there so many Raiders fans across the South? But it's just the current generation's Rebel flag, without confusing the Northerners that it was about racism.
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I've seen the flag-on-the-truck thing many times - never seen a confederate flag. While there are many in the South that still hate the damnyankees for the War of Northern Aggression, it's mostly pirate flags now. For a while I was confused - why were there so many Raiders fans across the South? But it's just the current generation's Rebel flag, without confusing the Northerners that it was about racism.
Are you sure it's a pirate flag, not a "death symbol" on BLACK not-quite-subtle message?
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I've seen the flag-on-the-truck thing many times - never seen a confederate flag.
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/sta... [theatlantic.com]
http://www.tampabay.com/multim... [tampabay.com]
http://onlyoneheaven.files.wor... [wordpress.com]
http://media.cmgdigital.com/sh... [cmgdigital.com]
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0cuK... [blogspot.com]
https://historicstruggle.files... [wordpress.com]
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic... [gstatic.com]
I rest my case.
Re:Good news! (Score:4, Insightful)
Everyone should watch this movie just as an act of patriotism.
You really think it was the North Koreans who did the Sony hack?
Sucker. Enjoy the crappy movie.
Re:Good news! (Score:4, Interesting)
Unless you actually find Seth Rogan funny and might get some enjoyment out of watching the film the only think watching this is going to do is help make Sony and their new distributors a pile of money for what is, by all accounts, a completely terrible film that is probably going to clean up at the Raspberry's next year. You know, *Sony*, those complete arseholes behind that rootkit thing a few years ago, and not to mention all that other douchebaggery that's been smeared all over the media for a couple of weeks now? You *want* to give money to those pricks?
Just putting it on release is good enough to give the bird to Kim Jong-Un (assuming he cares in the first place since there is no way that anyone in NK outside the inner circle even knows the film exists), there's no need to help Sony survive any longer than absolutely necessary as well.
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How about the repeat three years ago [geek.com]?
And let's not forget about "OtherOS" four years ago.
Or profiteering from Whitney Houston's extremely convenient death two years ago.
No, Sony's PR problem doesn't come from "one mistake one department made over a decade ago", it comes from their entire corporate ethos, which their latest woes merely exemplify. They pretty much have made it a holiday
Re:Good news! (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone should watch this movie just as an act of patriotism.
Most idiotic thing you could have said.
What happened so far: Sony makes a (for all we know) second-rate movie which takes the piss out of a foreign head of state. Unknown hackers have a field day with Sony's security, as has happened on many occassions before. FBI makes claims that a foreign state is behind this and calls it "Cyberwar" while anyone knowing anything about security and especially Sony's security just says "WTF".
Hackers threaten violence against theatres showing the second rate movies. The motivation most likely somethng called "lolz". Every one panics, especially. Sony.
Now some places decide to show this second rate movie, which is in the end mostly about taking the piss out of a foreign head of state. And you are saying that watching a second rate movie is somehow patriotic?
Re:Good news! (Score:4, Insightful)
I already watched Team America: World Police [imdb.com], a much better movie.
Also, AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!
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Are you sure North Korea was actually the culprit? Bruce Schneier doesn't think so [theatlantic.com].
Re: Good news! (Score:3)
Schneier never said North Korea didn't do it, he said (at best) that he didn't know but that the public evidence available was circumstantial.
I'd be willing to entertain the possibility it wasn't North Korea if someone actually would propose an alternate theory and the evidence to back it up, instead of conspiracies based on cui bono rationalizations and the lazy supposition that our government always lies.
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Everyone should watch this movie just as an act of patriotism.
Ah, yes - tell everyone what they should do. That's the American way!
I'm not even going to watch it as an act of piratism.
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Why? To make Sony rich? There is no patriotism behind watching this serie B film. It will be released, that's all that matter. Free speech is not about the obligation to watch bad movies and make a gang of morons rich. I fear I don't want to encourage an enteprise with so bad security practices and reward the shareholders for not making the call when it was time to.
Watching the movie just by patriotism is stupid.
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Yeh! Except isn't Sony a Japanese company? Who am I being patriotic for by seeing it?
Re: Good news! (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, I'll wait for it to show up on bittorrent. It's Sony after all.
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Using bittorent sounds a lot safer than thrusting Sony with your creditcard number.
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Unfortunately, Sony is usually the one doing the thrusting.
Sam
Re:Good news! (Score:5, Funny)
Their Communist Chinese hackers will use DDR3 exploit on all viewing sites to infect our computers.
An exploit on SDRAM? That’s why I insist on only using write-only memory on my computer.
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and for extra security, I use write-only high level languages, such as C++ ....
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Everyone should watch this movie just as an act of patriotism.
Id say as a matter of principles.
I'd say it's the way of the future. Think of it - this is the first $100 MILLION movie that's going direct to pay-per-view. This is a North America only release, so if it succeeds in taking in $30 million from that market, they will consider it would have been a success if it had been released world-wide.
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I checked the site out - I was really excited to watch the movie until I realized they weren't going to pay me to watch that crap.
Re:Good news! (Score:5, Insightful)
Long live clever marketing campaigns.
I don't doubt that this has been excellent publicity, but I don't think, when you consider the facts, this can be a calculated marketing campaign (the initial pulling and then reinstating of the film may have been, but the hacking and the threats? No).
Where does that leave the claims that NK threatened Sony?
Nobody has made such claims, at least nobody that knows what they were talking about. Anonymous internet users threatened cinema chains. If Sony were behind these threats they could be prosecuted for making a true threat [wikipedia.org] or blackmail. Thus I think it was unlikely to have been Sony.
What is the possibility that this is all part of a clever marketing campaign to get all of us to see the film.
If only unreleased films had been released that might be a valid suggestion. However by releasing private employee data Sony would have exposed themselves to significant reputational damage and legal liability (regardless if they were caught or not). If caught both of those would be astronomical. So no. Sony may have capitalised on it (although their response gives the impression of unprepared chaos, rather than planned marketing campaign).
Sony said it was far too dangerous to release the film...
No they didn't. They said they were pulling it because cinemas weren't showing it:
“In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release” source [theguardian.com]
If it wasn't an intentional marketing campaign, should it have been?
Bar release of private employee data etc. and threats to life and limb then yes, it could have been very effective. But I (and most people) don't like been lied to so if they got caught it would probably backfire spectacularly. (side note: this is the first high profile data security incident I can think of that has elicited sympathy for the victim company rather than anger that their security wasn't up to scratch. Is this because people are recognising that these are increasingly inevitable and the real bad guys are the criminals, and we're reaching a turning point in the way customers and the media view such breaches, or is it because everyone's favourite comedy villain, NK, was involved?)
tl;dr: The hack was real, although may not have been NK. Same for the threats. It's been good publicity for the film but Sony's response has been too incoherent to have been planned.
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Don't worry, it will be available outside the US. The internet treats territory protection as what it is: A bug. It will route around it.
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