[shawn-butler]

Might just be me but it seems likely Sony and these celebrities are in pretty clear violation of the FTC 2013 .com disclosure guidelines?

It's one thing to give celebrities clothes, etc and let them parade them around so that gullible consumers buy the product to pretend to be "fashionable" via known endorsement contracts.

It's quite another to pay a celebrity millions of dollars to say something and hide it as their own statement without disclosure.

Payola 3.0?

EDIT: Added link to FTC guidelines [pdf] http://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/press-rel...

[pervycreeper]

This seems to be the most glaring issue here, and likely the reason for the scare letter.

Probably unwise of them to have used this strategy considering the Streisand effect.

[shawn-butler]

Again just speculating, but this could also elevate the dump of the documents on Twitter by the individual into a press issue now since it is showing wrongdoing.

Rights of journalist to distribute illegally obtained documents in public interest I think was firmly established by SCOTUS in BARTNICKI v. VOPPER [0] and they go over the DMCA implications in the opinion.

[0] http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2171346211086974...