Top Five Theaters Won't Show "The Interview" Sony Cancels Release

tobiasly writes The country's top five theater chains — Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Carmike Cinemas and Cineplex Entertainment — have decided not to play Sony's The Interview. This comes after the group which carried off a massive breach of its networks threatened to carry out "9/11-style attacks" on theaters that showed the film. Update: Sony has announced that it has cancelled the planned December 25 theatrical release.

Comments

Re:Terrorists Win

[johnlcallaway]

It seems that the terrorists also seem to know how to get the UK/Germany/France/Other EU country to pay millions in ransom to ISIS.

I'd rather live in a country where an inconsequential movie is dumped over a country stupid enough to pay a ransom.

No, no, no

[damn_registrars]

It's pretty transparent that these hackers are North Korean. Fuck North Korea.

Really? What would North Korea have to gain by doing this? They already have less than one friend on the global stage (ie, only partial support from China). If they go around encouraging cyber warfare like this they are only inviting more pain back towards themselves.

Even more so this is likely beyond the technical capabilties of North Korea. Some people have suggested that this hack took upwards of 100TB of data. First of all, it is unlikely that North Korea has the ability to move that much data through their connection to the internet in the amount of time that transpired. Second, even if all the "best" hackers from North Korea did their best job to steal this data and place it elsewhere, it would have been pretty easy to figure that out as well.

So really, scratch North Korea off the list.

Some people have suggested that the hackers are "sympathetic to North Korea". To this I say bullshit as well. If someone wanted to make North Korea look like victims, launching a cyber attack is not a good way to do that. And how would a cyber attack on Sony make North Korea look strong or capable?

I would say the most likely case is we have some hackers who really despised Sony and found a way in. They then laid this "North Korea" cause as a red herring.

Re:No, no, no

[damn_registrars]

The current prevailing theory is that North Korea hired outside hackers for this job. That fits the level of skill shown (less than CIA-level, more than skiddie level), the damage done, and even North Korea's response (had it been homegrown hackers, I'm not sure Kim could have helped but shout it out to the world).

That is a rather difficult hypothesis to support. How do you show that the hackers were hired by North Korea? What would North Korea be able to offer in compensation?

Also, pointing out that an action was illogical in no way proves that it was not North Korea. They have shown time and time again to be a country that makes bad decisions, and acts with little regard for the consequences.

The third generation Kim is not quite the rogue actor his predecessors were. Jong-Un seems to be aware of the fact that his country is under a microscope now and that he can't always just do what he wants. Furthermore he seems aware of the fact that the support they used to enjoy from China is quickly becoming exactly that - support they used to enjoy. While not the most logical guy at the party, Kim Jong-Un seems to have a little more awareness of the world than what we used to see from North Korea.