The Interview/Sony/Hack: A Message in a Bottle

Our eldest daughter has a phrase she is fond of using on the frequent occasions where my understanding of her cultural touchpoints comes up empty. “It’s a thing, Dad. It really is.” she will say in order to efficiently dismiss my profound lack of knowledge while at the same time assuring me that she fully comprehends what I so clearly cannot. End of discussion. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Move on to the next topic.

Similarly the debacle that was/is the hack of Sony, the cancellation (and un-cancellation) of “The Interview” and all the censorship, privacy, ethical and geopolitical considerations seem to be “A Thing”. Meaning that they are so complex and intertwined as to be beyond easy analysis and understanding in the short term. Accordingly it seems appropriate to create a “message in a bottle” (cue The Police circa 1979) which contains an admittedly personal curation of the last three weeks of stories on the subject. The hope is that time and perspective will help our understanding of the implications to creativity of what happened, and comparing what we will know in the future to what we know know will somehow be helpful.

So without further ado a collection (in rough chronological order) of The Interview/Sony/Hack “Thing” to-date.

 The Messy Media Ethics Behind The Sony Hacks: The gray area where the leaked information resides — between public and private, prurient and illuminating — might not be the exception, but the new normal.

+ No Gray Area: It’s Definitely Not OK to Publish Emails From the Sony Hack: A look at the media’s strategy of relying on criminals to do their reporting for them.

+ Sony Fires Off Letter To Press Outlets Demanding They Cease Publication Of And Destroy Any ‘Stolen Information’

+ Can Sony Get Around First Amendment to Sue the Media Over the Hack? (Analysis)

+ U.S. Officials Determine North Korea Is Behind Sony Hack: Reports

+ Sony Hackers Threaten “9/11-Style” Attack On Movie Theaters

+ Film of graphic novel Pyongyang killed in wake of Sony hacks

+ Sony Officially Cancels ‘The Interview’ Release Following Hacker Threats

+ Sony Goes One Ridiculous Step Further: Threatens To Sue Twitter Over Leaked Email Screenshots

+ Seth Rogen And The Ridiculous War Of 2014: In the gutless cancelation of The Interview release, Seth Rogen and James Franco emerge the lone heroes.

+ Obama thinks Sony “made a mistake” pulling The Interview after hack: The president also promised a “proportional response” to North Korea.

+ North Korea loses Internet days after Barack Obama vows revenge over Sony hacks

+ Cyberwar on North Korea Could Be Illegal: Someone knocked the Hermit Kingdom offline. If it was the United States, the operation will test the bounds of international law.

+ Sony To Allow Screenings Of ‘The Interview’ On Christmas After All

+ The Interview to be streamed online through YouTube, Xbox Video, Google Play

+ How Tim League, George R. R. Martin & Indie Cinemas Helped Uncancel ‘The Interview’

+ Let the games begin: first Sony class action lawsuit filed over data breach

+ We Spoke To A North Korean Defector Who Trained With Its Hackers — What He Said Is Pretty Scary

+ Why Sony is way out on a limb with legal threats against Twitter

+ The Interview was pirated more than 750,000 times in its first day of release

+ What Would Twitter Do? Musician’s tweets of Sony e-mails lead to threats: “I don’t know what the line is,” says musician-turned-publisher Val Broeksmit.

+ North Korea suffers another Internet outage, hurls racial slur at Pres. Obama: Latest drama follows The Interview’s Christmas opening—which earned $1 million.

+ Who’s Behind The Internet Outages In North Korea, Anyway?

+ The Interview earns a stunning $15M from online sales: Sony got close to the $20 million weekend it was aiming for.

+ How ‘The Interview’s’ VOD grosses could change the game

+ Sony’s Own Copyright Infringement Shows How Broken Our Copyright System Is Today

+ North Korean defector to airdrop DVD, USB copies of The Interview: DPRK’s “leadership will crumble if the idolization of leader Kim breaks down.”

jon