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Sony To Release the Interview Online Today; Apple Won't Play Ball
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, 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.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
should be on the torrent sites in time for Christmas?
- In Soviet Korea, only old people loose all their bases to Natalie Portman's petrified hot grits overlords.
Nah, I'll wait for it to show up on bittorrent. It's Sony after all.
Uh, how about you release it on the Playstation Network, Sony?
I see the focus was on Apple, but has Amazon weighed in?
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.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
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.
Brought to you by: "Al"toids - the curiously weird mint.
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.
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" ?
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.
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.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
"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.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Erm. No. Not even if you paid me to.
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.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
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?
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.
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.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Sony isn't even streaming it on their own service for PS3/PS4!!! What are they thinking?
I already watched Team America: World Police, a much better movie.
Also, AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Don't they let the whole staff off for the holidays? You certainly can't submit any app updates.
Anyone that has EVERY put anything out with Apple -- Apps, Books, Music, Movies -- knows that Apple sends an email several weeks in advanced telling that they are going into a freeze for a week or two EVERY YEAR. They let their people go on vacation and spend time with the family and all that shit.
This was sent out in November: http://www.macstories.net/news...
Guess what? It takes about a week from the time Apple gets a movie until they post it. They do a QA check on it, and make certain the ratings are correct and ask that the folks on the other side to verify the same. The quickest this happens is about a week. And now Sony wants Apple to order their employees back in from their vacation, all the while not putting this up on either of their two services.
I know /. hates Apple these days (I was around when /. loved them) but damn...
Are you sure North Korea was actually the culprit? Bruce Schneier doesn't think so.
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.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Using bittorent sounds a lot safer than thrusting Sony with your creditcard number.
And even if they were the same, I love how /. is so fixated on one mistake one department made over a decade ago.
How about the repeat three years ago?
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 tradition of shoving their foot up our asses on a yearly basis, and then expecting us to just smile and ask when the next gen of Playstation will come out so we can re-buy our entire game library that doesn't work on their empty promises of backward compatibility.
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.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
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 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
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.
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?
Fricken hackers hacked Sony I guess. So we can't watch on our TV! B.S!!!!
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.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
Everyone should watch this movie just as an act of patriotism.
It's utter B.S. that my comment has been marked as flamebait, which means it was not sincere. You may not agree with me, but I am completely sincere in my feeling of wanting to support this movie just on the basis of it being a target of repression of freedom of speech.