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The Interview

5K views 211 replies 48 participants last post by  oink 
#1 · (Edited)
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#2 ·
I was going to start a thread on this movie, but to be honest, I was kind of scared. :p Who knew NK even had the technical know-how to pull something like this off? It sure intimidated Sony into doing exactly what they wanted -- pulling the film. Rogen and Franco have cancelled all their promotional appearances. And it will be a long time before a studio green-lights another satirical film along these lines.

Does this mean "the terrorists win"?
 
#9 ·
You bet they win. Absolute BS! Sony's fault for not guarding data better (as usual) but they just opened a precedent for giving into terrorists demands. And why are we even calling them terrorists? It's just a bunch of pimple-faced nerds down in their basement too afraid to go face to face. Sony needs to rethink this decision and release it after the holidays.
 
#3 ·
#4 ·
The real trouble with this story is the wholesale destruction that can be done to infrastructure via hacking, but this sort of thing has happened in some much more serious cases. I hope much can be learned from this situation for the purpose of preventative measures.

Now for some levity. I'm sure that this is a terrible film and seeing less of the slovenly Seth Rogen is a good thing. If only he would stay away from the spotlight for good.
 
#5 ·
The real trouble with this story is the wholesale destruction that can be done to infrastructure via hacking, but this sort of thing has happened in some much more serious cases. I hope much can be learned from this situation.
The difference here is not just that Sony was hacked, their executives publicly embarrassed, and millions lost. Heck, they lose that much in their executive suite sofa cushions in a bad year. The Big Deal this time is that this NK hacker group threatened physical harm to the public should they attend this film. That's never been done before. This raises cyber-crime to a new, more dangerous level. It's almost certainly just the usual rant & bluster from NK, but the theater chains felt they couldn't take the chance. Who can blame them?

MSmith83 said:
Now for some levity. I'm sure that this is a terrible film and seeing less of the slovenly Seth Rogen is a good thing. If only he would stay away from the spotlight for good.
I disagree. I enjoy his & Franco's films for what they are. What they aren't is high-brow. That's okay by me. I watch top-quality serialized TV, like 'Breaking Bad' or 'The Newsroom' for that.
 
#8 ·
The beneficial effect of this kind of "publicity" is never going to come close to make up for their losses. Even if they do eventually release it on shiny disk, that won't come anywhere near what they would have made from a theatrical release. But it's probably a safe bet this movie will never see the light of day, because there's no leverage or punishment that can be levied on the perpetrators, and they'll just renew their threats since they were so spectacularly successful the first time. Complete write-off for Sony.

Which leads me back to the chilling effect this is going to have on other similar, satiric Hollywood endeavors. If you thought the studios were playing it safe now with derivative, formulaic and risk-adverse product, just imagine what this is going to do.
 
#14 ·
I've said it before, and I'll say it again... The internet is a joke. It was never designed for what it's being used for. It's an almost completely impossible to protect system. This is ironic since it was originally designed as a government network that could resist attack, though probably they were thinking of physical attack and never considered that the network itself would become a more interesting target than Washington DC. In terms of the network itself it was created for academics and government agencies to use and it was never even a consideration that any of the users of it would try to attack it. And now we are using it for our entire lives almost, and it's just a disaster waiting to happen. Or, it's just a long string of ever more dangerous disasters, some of which have already happened and they will just get worse and worse.

And there's absolutely nothing that can be done about it. The systems involved are vastly too complex for even people who dedicate their lives to them to really guaranteed their safety; and, the hundreds of millions of vastly less knowledgeable people, who can provide an easy conduit into the system without bothering to attack the bunkers that the really knowledgeable people create, will never come close to truly locking down their systems. So it will always be as full of holes as Swiss Cheese, actually a lot more holey. And it now has far too much inertia to step back and start again from a clean slate with a system that might have a chance.

It's not a sustainable situation, so I don't know what's going to happen. There are plenty of things that could be done to make it better, but they aren't going to get done. And since the system fundamentally involves human beings, no technical solutions are going to ultimately be sufficient. Further, there's a massive disincentive to even try to make it safer, from the very people who will suffer from it, because making it safer will have to mean making it less anonymous. So all those people out there who are totally used to getting anything they want any time they want without consequences are going to react negatively to anything that interferes with that, and that will in and of itself make it impossible to close the holes. All of those people out there will immediately try to create new holes.

I don't know if I will ultimately live to see the chickens come home to log in, but I kind of think I might, and that's not due to my having a particularly rosy picture regarding my longevity prospects.
 
#15 ·
As cheery as those thoughts are -- :p -- I heard something the other day that I hadn't even suspected. Hackers are now remotely inserting malware into computers, businesses mostly (for now), that will encrypt all the data on a company's network. Your data is still there, you just can't access it. Even backup drives, if they're connected to the servers or individual computers, are locked up as well. Then they ask for a payment - ransom, really - to provide the unlock key to get your data back. And the companies are paying it. What choice do they have? And as in other more conventional cyber-attacks, they're keeping it secret for the most part. We usually only hear about this stuff when somebody outside the company, a blogger or reporter for example, uncovers it.

Just in case you weren't shaken up enough by Dean's post... :D
 
#16 ·
I tend to agree with Dean, the Internet was never designed for the way it is used today. Back in 1990 when I first used a browser (on an Amiga) we thought it would be just something for nerds and kept thinking that for a few years though the VP of software where I worked was visionary enough to say "new method of distribution!"

Ever look at your router firewall logs? I see probes all the time from all over the world and especially IP addresses in Asia.

The real problem might be that if this all escalates they'll decide the Internet isn't for the public outside of big business and we'll wind up with an electronic billboard. What a revolting development that would be!
 
#27 ·
So, no one is talking about the film. Right?

Everyone is talking about a news item that may or may not be true. Right?

AVS rules = no political ****ola, and yet here it is.

Jingoistic Repeating of Questionable "The Government Says" News on AVS

Did I Miss Something?

GFYS - Really
 
#40 ·
Of course this whole situation proves how completely clueless communist countries are about public relations. They don't ever seem to get beyond Chairman Mao's PR handbook. If they'd have done nothing, this movie would have come out, done little to nothing, and gone away. Now every person on the planet knows about it and what it's about, and N. Koreas has just yet again confirmed themselves as a rogue state in the eyes of the rest of the world. They will just isolate themselves even more, and even more of their people will suffer.
 
#46 ·
#45 ·
I don't see how Sony can make any kind of a sensible deal with this hacker organization, as they have absolutely no way of guaranteeing any of their stolen information wouldn't get released anyway at some point. The hackers have basically been given a blank cheque to demand whatever they want, all they have to do is "threaten" to release more data. What if they demand Sony produce a film glorifying Kim Jong Un? Or demand Sony drop Cinavia protection on their blu-rays and the PS4?
 
#47 ·
In no way am I defending the actions of NK, but what would the reaction of the US or any other first world country if NK released a movie available world-wide depicting the assassination of its head of state? Wouldn't be terrorism threats, but it would certainly leave a strong level of disdain - and all for the purpose of laughs and financial profit?

Freedom of speech and opinion is important, but this was just a bad idea at a bad time.
 
#48 ·
Like Death of a President?

The reaction (at least by the film world)?

The film won a total of 6 awards including; the International Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) from the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, the International Emmy Award for the TV Movie/Mini-Series category in the (UK), the RTS Television Award in the Digital Channel Programme category from the Royal Television Society, the RTBF TV Prize for Best Picture Award from the Brussels European Film Festival for director Gabriel Range, the Banff Rockie Award from the Banff Television Festival for the film, and one for director Gabriel Range. The film also received a nomination for Best Visual Effects from the British Academy TV Awards in 2007.
 
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