Can’t get enough of those irascible Sony execs email-dishing on Leonardo DiCaprio’s “actually despicable” behavior and Michael Fassbender’s exceptionally large penis? According to Guardians of Peace, the outfit claiming responsibility for the mammoth leak of such sensitive Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) documents, there’s plenty more where those came from. But if the media keeps publishing such juicy details leaked on the Internet, Sony threatens to hold the violating news agencies “responsible.”
On Sunday, news organizations including The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter and Recode, received a three page letter from Sony attorney David Boies. According to the letter, which Recode has published in full:
Sony Pictures Entertainment does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading, or making any use of the Stolen Information, and request your cooperation in destroying the Stolen Information.
Legal precedent offers little backup for Sony’s demands, Kurt Opsahl, deputy general counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the New York Times:
“It’s unfortunate that Sony got hacked, and lost control over its internal information,” Mr. Opsahl said in an email. “But the solution is not to muzzle the press.”
Guardians of Peace claims to have stolen nearly 100 terabytes of Sony data in a hack which shut down the company’s movie studio computers. The breach, first reported on November 24, included employee email archives (those of at least four executives); salaries and other financial information; business plans and details of upcoming movies.
See also: Latest Message From Sony Attackers Puts Suspicion On North Korea
All this apparently because the Guardians of Peace object to the release of the The Interview, the upcoming Sony comedy in which the CIA asks characters played by James Franco and Seth Rogen to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. North Korea denies orchestrating the late November hack, but praised what may be the largest and most damaging corporate attacks so far.
“The hacking into the Sony Pictures might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers with the DPRK [North Korea] in response to its appeal,” an official North Korean statement reads.
Over the weekend, the Guardians of Peace posted its latest dump of Sony data on various file-sharing sites, and promised more as a Christmas gift. As Recode reports, the post offers Sony Pictures Entertainment staffers an out:
We have a plan to release emails and privacy of the Sony Pictures employees. If you don’t want your privacy to be released, tell us your name and business title to take off your data.
With the FBI investigating and no solid leads yet in the case, it’s likely Guardians of Peace has more to worry about than threats from Sony’s lawyers.
Lead image courtesy of The Interview, Sony Pictures Entertainment.
