|
|
 
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Sony Hack Hits Home
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 12-24-2014 03:01 PM
I think you are being a little too Chicken Littleish about this. This situation is unusual in a myriad of ways.
1. This movie already had a huge amount of advertising and was well known even before the hack.
2. Since the hack it's gotten hundreds of millions of free 'impressions' in every worldwide media outlet known to mankind, unlike any movie before it.
3. When Sony pulled it from release, it became the "forbidden fruit" that now suddenly EVERYBODY was interested in, even those who didn't care at all before.
4. Now that they are "really" releasing it, and at a stupid bargain (on VOD, on YouTube) price at that, OF COURSE a lot of people will stream it...due to the even more massive publicity that THAT will generate.
There is almost no hope whatever of EVER re-creating this particular scenario again, considering studios are now shying away from making this kind of "controversial" content.
The screwup now is with the indie and arthouse theaters, who should have said to Sony, "HOLD ON THERE, pardner -- if you're going VOD, we are OUT."
One thing about this situation, it sure has exposed a lot of spineless wimps for what they really are.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joe Elliott
Master Film Handler
Posts: 497
From: Port Orange, Fl USA
Registered: Oct 2006
|
posted 12-24-2014 08:22 PM
I don't think they screwed the independents. They and the FBI probably set up the streaming and YouTube deal to get the hackers to DDOS the streams. Maybe to catch them, maybe just to throw them off of harassing the theaters. When no one can download it, they will just shake their fists, blame the hackers, and recommend everyone go to the theater, where the hackers can't stop it.
I personally think that North Korea was NOT involved in the attack. Many security experts agree. Do a search for it, you come up with many articles and many different experts speaking up that they don't believe NK was involved. Example below.
I listened to a podcast today that had two experts from Mcaffee, who both agreed that there is zero evidence that points to NK.
I think it is all political bullshit. Obama was meeting with Cuba, and then was to meet with North Korea in an attempt to improve relations. His political opponents saw blaming North Korea as a way to derail Obama's plans (maybe I've just been watching House of Cards too much). Or maybe they even hired those who did the attack. Hacking Sony would not be a matter of national security, so I could see a politician rationalizing that as being OK to further their political agenda. Although like the article below states, The Interview wasn't mentioned by the hackers until the press started speculating about it, so that kind of eliminates politicians hiring someone, but it does not eliminate them as using it for their agenda, by blaming NK.
One of many sony hack articles blasting the goverment story, this one is from Gigaom.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
|
posted 12-24-2014 09:58 PM
So wasn't it Sony that was caught with movie critics on their payroll to give their movies 5 star reviews?
This stinks of the same thing:
Just pay for “The Interview,” even if you don’t watch it
quote:
Michelle Quinn
I had been wavering about seeing “The Interview.” The reviews have been mixed, but mostly negative. I don’t have a lot of expendable time, so I like sure bets in my entertainment.
But now that Sony has decided to make the film available both online and in theaters, I’ll pay and watch it.
And I think most people should cough up the $5.99 to rent it even if they never see it.
Sony’s decision to pull the movie last week in response to continued threats from hackers was depressing. I understood the public safety argument of theater owners.
But as many argued, it was a very bad precedent, “The Satanic Verses” all over again. But that was 1988. How could content be held as a virtual hostage in the digital age?
Fortunately, tech companies like Google and Microsoft have stepped up.
Microsoft’s Brad Smith said in a blog post that the company’s decision to make the film available on Xbox Video is because “we are supporting the Constitutional right of free expression, and we hope that by acting together, we will help deter other attacks.”
Given the greater cause, so what about the film’s quality?
It is a historic moment, as I wrote earlier. Tech helping out Hollywood. The White House stepping in on Sony’s behalf to talk to Apple about making it available on iTunes (Apple reportedly declined).
So buy it but don’t sit through it if this description by Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times sounds unappealing: “a sloppy farce with the look of a low-budget affair, perhaps to match its lowbrow idea.”
But Jake Coyle of the Associated Press praised the film because it “pulses with an unpredictable absurdity and can-you-believe-we’re-doing-this glee.”
That reminds me of Adam Johnson’s “Orphan Master’s Son,” by Stanford University’s Adam Johnson, also about North Korea. Some critics pooh poohed the book for its absurdity, much like “The Interview.” But it won the 2013 Pulitzer for fiction.
Now that I can stream it on YouTube or Xbox, rather than go to a theater, it’s an easy decision. I’ll give it a go.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
Printer-friendly view of this topic