President Obama Says Sony Made a Mistake Pulling THE INTERVIEW
As you've probably all heard by now, Sony Pictures caved under the pressure that the hackers were putting on them, and they scrapped the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy The Interview. A lot of people were disappointed that the studio gave in to the terrorists' demands. After the studio made the announcement, they got the following response from the hackers:
"Now we want you never let the movie released, distributed or leaked in any form of, for instance, DVD or piracy. we still have your private and sensitive data”
The hackers then claim that they will “ensure the security of your data unless you make additional trouble. And we want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately."
These guys are seriously just bullies that are now exercising the power that Sony gave to them. Today, President Obama talked about the situation, saying,
“Sony’s a corporation, it suffered significant damage. There were threats against its employees. I am sympathetic to the concerns that they face. That being said, yes, I think they made a mistake.”
He also said that he wishes Sony would have spoken to him first and that they shouldn't "get into a pattern where you’re intimidated by these kinds of attacks.” He added,
"We cannot have a society where some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States. Because if somebody’s going to intimidate [Sony] for releasing a satirical movie, imagine what’s going to happen when there’s a documentary they don’t like. Even worse, if producers and distributors start engaging in self-censorship because they don’t want to offend the sensibilities of somebody who frankly probably needs their sensibilities offended. That’s not who we are. That’s not who Americans are."
As for what action will be taken, he explains,
"They caused a lot of damage. We will respond. We will respond proportionally and we will respond in a place and a time and a manner that we choose. We are working up a range of options and they will be presented to me."
After the speech was given, Sony CEO Michael Lynton told CNN, “We have not caved, we have not given in, we have not backed down.” But that's kind of what is looked like. He explains, though, that when movie theaters started dropping out, “we had no alternative but to not proceed with the theatrical release on Dec. 25.” He doesn't think that the President or the press truely understand the situation:
“I think actually the unfortunate part is. The President, the press, and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened. We do not own movie theaters. We cannot decide what will be played in movie theaters,”
In the end it doesn't look like we're going to see The Interview released anytime soon. It's a sad situation that Sony found themselves in, and hopefully they can bounce back from it. It's a great studio that has made some great movies over the years.
Via: Deadline