Additionally, The Verge a Vox Media sister site uncovered documents revealing an effort by Hollywood movie studios to counter the lobbying agenda of Google, a company the movie industry refers to as "Goliath. This is information that is rarely made public and is useful for industry reporters to have. Though most of the gossip actually shared by reporters was salacious, the vast majority of documents released in the Sony hack were about the humdrum, day-to-day realities of running a media corporation — things like squeezing more money out of films most people have forgotten, such as the low-grossing comedy Saving Silverman.
Combing through the massive trove of files released by hackers took time and effort precisely because so many of them were so banal.
The leaked information raised questions about whether it was even ethical for reporters to comb through the stolen data. Was it fair game as news, as with past, WikiLeaks-style revelations, or did it cross a line? Slate's Jacob Weisberg was particularly insightful on this point. He wrote:. News outlets should obviously cover the story of the hack itself, the effect on Sony, the question of how it happened, and who's responsible. This is a big and legitimate news story. But when it comes to exploiting the fruits of the digital break-in, journalists should voluntarily withhold publication.
They shouldn't hold back because they're legally obligated to-I don't believe they are-but because there's no ethical justification for publishing this damaging, stolen material. Weisberg made an argument that several people who opposed publication of stories gleaned from the hacked data made — that they were functionally similar though less invasive to the release of hacked nude photos of many female celebrities from earlier in the year. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin who later attempted to argue that the Sony hack was worse than the photo hack also made this argument in the New York Times , writing:.
I understand that news outlets routinely use stolen information. That's how we got the Pentagon Papers, to use an oft-used argument. But there is nothing in these documents remotely rising to the level of public interest of the information found in the Pentagon Papers. Do the emails contain any information about Sony breaking the law?
Misleading the public? Acting in direct harm to customers, the way the tobacco companies or Enron did? Is there even one sentence in one private email that was stolen that even hints at wrongdoing of any kind?
Anything that can help, inform or protect anyone? But most journalists ultimately decided there were valid reasons to write about what was found in the stolen information and that much of it was newsworthy, beyond even gossip value.
On that last one, ultimately, yeah, I think so. It's not a matter of whether Sony now "deserves" to be cyberterrorized or not, but rather whether the value of what we have learned outweighs how we learned it.
We decided that it was important for you to know how the MPAA plans to influence how you experience the internet, and by extension, how they intend to shape the future of the information marketplace; we could all agree that it had more impact on our world and our lives than top-secret internal intelligence that Scott Rudin is a meanie.
Legally speaking, these reporters were on firm ground, thanks to a Supreme Court decision. The court ruled that a radio station couldn't be held responsible for broadcasting the contents of newsworthy audio recordings — even if the recordings were originally made in violation of wiretapping laws.
The same principle seems to apply to the leaked documents. As long as a news organization didn't participate in the Sony attack itself, it has a First Amendment right to report on newsworthy information it finds in the documents. The attacks — and Sony's subsequent decision to pull The Interview from theaters — could make movie studios gun-shy about controversy in the future.
Hollywood has never been a town of risk-takers, but it's only become more risk-averse as the years have gone on. Just take a look at the lists of upcoming sequels collected in this piece.
Regardless of anyone's feelings on how Sony should have handled the situation , the incident still establishes a precedent that makes it harder to get politically risky projects made in a system that's already so uninterested in attracting risk. To a degree, this has always been true. Projects about touchy subjects are often produced independently, and mainstream movies rarely offer much political criticism for fear of alienating potential audiences.
But the situation surrounding The Interview goes above and beyond even that. While the movie did better than could have been anticipated in its unlikely release, box office analyst David Poland still estimates that it ended up a net loss for Sony.
Maybe this case is unique and unrepeatable. Or maybe it's a harbinger of things to come, of the messy world that results when show business, the internet, and foreign policy collide.
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What were the Sony hacks? What did the attackers do? According to a former Sony employee who posted to Reddit, this is the message Sony employees saw on their screens that Monday morning: The hackers called themselves the Guardians of Peace.
What is The Interview, and why is North Korea so mad about it? Why did Sony decide to pull The Interview? Why was that decision reversed? While somewhat oblique, it was widely interpreted as a threat of terrorist violence: We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places The Interview be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to.
What's the evidence that North Korea is behind the attacks? The hackers are widely believed to be backed by the North Korean government, which is furious at Sony for producing The Interview , a movie that depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
On Wednesday, a terrorism threat against theaters showing the film caused Sony to cancel its planned Christmas Day release. Read on to learn how the hacks happened, who might be responsible, and what we've learned as a result.
When Sony Pictures employees got into the office on Monday, November 24, they discovered that their corporate network had been hacked. The attackers took terabytes of private data, deleted the original copies from Sony computers, and left messages threatening to release the information if Sony didn't comply with the attackers' demands.
Someone claiming to be a former Sony employee posted this screenshot, which allegedly shows the message that appeared on Sony employees' computer screens:. Sony's network was down for days as administrators struggled to repair the damage. Staff were reportedly forced to work on whiteboards to do their jobs.
But the greater damage was from all the confidential information that got leaked to the public. The hackers posted five Sony movies four unreleased to file-sharing networks. And they also leaked thousands of confidential documents — everything from private correspondence among Sony executives to salary and performance data about Sony employees. Those documents were password protected, and whoever is behind the hack provided said password only to journalists.
But it's likely only a matter of time before they break out into the world at large. As reporters have pored over the huge cache of documents, we've gotten a steady stream of minor scoops about potential movie projects like a Spider-Man movie crossover , conflicts between Sony executives and Hollywood celebrities one executive called actor Kevin Hart a "whore" , and the company's management practices 16 of the company's 17 top-paid executives are men. We don't know for sure, but it's looking increasingly likely that that North Korea was behind the attacks.
On Wednesday, multiple media organizations reported the US government has concluded that the regime was responsible. And there is some other circumstantial evidence linking the attacks to the North Koreans.
Forensic analysis has found that the methods used against Sony are similar to those used in a attack on South Korean companies last year. Some security experts suspect those attacks were carried out by North Koreans operating from China. The reclusive nation was furious at Sony because the studio was about to release The Interview , a comedy in which Seth Rogen and James Franco play characters who attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
A message claiming to be from the hackers demanded that Sony "stop immediately showing the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War. Yes it did. Theaters became nervous about the possibility that the attackers — whoever they were — would follow through on the threats. Or, perhaps, that fears of terrorism would keep moviegoers away from the theaters.
Either way, some theaters asked Sony for permission to drop the film from their lineups. Sony relented on Tuesday, and several theater chains quickly announced they would no longer show The Interview on December Then on Wednesday, Sony announced it was suspending the film's release altogether, citing the theaters' pullout for their decision. At this point, it appears the film may not get released at all.
Some Sony employees were unhappy that the studio continues producing "formulaic" Adam Sandler movies. For the most part, we learned that running a big media company is kind of boring. Many of the documents focused on routine business activities, like the company's never-ending efforts to generate revenues from its vast collection of old movies like the forgettable film Saving Silverman.
We've learned that Sony sometimes pays high-profile men more than women for what appears to be similar work. Of the 17 Sony execs paid more than a million dollars, only one of them — Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal — is a woman. Email correspondence also suggests that Jennifer Lawrence was paid less than her male co-stars for her role in American Hustle.
The Verge a Vox Media sister site uncovered documents revealing an effort by Hollywood movie studios to counter the lobbying agenda of Google, a company the movie industry refers to as "Goliath. The leaks have also provided rare insight into the profitability of Sony's movies. Ordinarily, the rate of return on Hollywood blockbusters is treated as a closely guarded secret.
But the Hollywood Reporter dug into the Sony documents and discovered details about which movies wound up in the black once all revenue sources were taken into account.
The leaks also produced a lot of grist for the gossip mill. One executive called Angelina Jolie a "minimally talented spoiled brat.
Some of these revelations are obviously embarrassing to the individuals involved. But they don't seem to prove very much about the company as a whole.
Presumably, a document dump from another studio would reveal the same kind of executive trash-talk and low-level dissatisfaction. They described the data breach as an "epic nightmare. The cyber-attack drew widespread international attention and Sony subsequently stopped the movie's general release. A unknown group calling itself GOP - later identified as Guardians of Peace - claimed it was behind the attack, prompting the FBI to launch an investigation.
North Korea dismissed any suggestion it may have had a hand in the attack as a form of retaliation for Sony's release of The Interview. A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman had earlier called the movie an "act of terrorism", promising "merciless" retaliation if it was released. The movie eventually received a much smaller release and was offered through legal digital downloads. Sony Entertainment chief executive Michael Lynton called the agreement "an important, positive step forward in putting the cyber-attack firmly behind us".
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