[Malician]

Doesn't the assumption that the movie release even matters assume North Korean culpability in the attack (debated in other threads?)

If NK is not responsible, it really doesn't matter whether the movie is released. In this scenario, the hackers could easily leak the movie themselves under someone else's guise, providing an excellent excuse to continue their campaign of pure damage toward Sony Pictures. (Assuming they even bother.)

[vidarh]

No, it assumes that the the persons behind the attack cares whether or not the movie is released.

While you wouldn't think so, the North Korean regime does actually have (a few) supporters outside of North Korea. There are always someone who wants to believe that all the bad stuff is invented by regime opponents, regardless which regime you're talking about.

[lucozade]

I don't think so. There have been explicit threats against the cinemas if it's released. As such, it's pretty much beholden on the U.S. gov and Sony to assume it's a terrorist threat and act accordingly.

That's somewhat orthogonal to whether or not NK is behind it but the possibility of a nation state being involved must affect their calculations.

[rblatz]

If all it takes is anonymous vague threats on the Internet to stifle free speech, then we may as well just give that right up. We no longer deserve it.