[geophile]

Isn't this two not really related events being conflated?

1) Sony gets hacked. A big hack, but just a hack.

2) Sony pulls a movie because it offends a nasty dictator identified by name.

Why are these connected? It's not as if they learned about the movie from the hack? I've seen the ad for that movie a few times, and I'm pretty sure that the spymasters in North Korea can watch the same Seinfeld reruns that I do.

Why is the ridiculousness over Sony pulling the picture (PR stunt or not) at all related to the hack?

[joeguilmette]

What don't you get?

Sony got hacked, the hackers said if you halt release of the film we'll stop releasing your private data.

The release was cancelled, the hackers stop releasing private data.

It doesn't take a data scientist to put those two together.

[geophile]

But the movie was pulled over concerns about terrorism, not embarrassing revelations:

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/sony-north-korea-the-i...

Sony left the decision up to the theater chains, and those chains were reported to back away from the movie because of the legal liability if there were a terrorist incident.

[peeters]

The hackers also threatened terrorist attacks on movie theatres that showed the film. Which may or may not have influenced Sony's decision.