An Offer to Sony from 2600 • Hacker News Board

Re: An Offer to Sony from 2600

#71

Post by jusben1369 » Sat, Dec 20, 2014, 12:40 PM UTC

jarcane wrote: post #16

zaroth wrote: post #4

Sony CEO Michael Lynton says Sony still wants The Interview to be seen and is considering their options. Those include DVD and Blu-ray home video, YouTube, VOD, and other digital platforms but “there has not been one major VOD distributor, one major e-commerce site that has stepped forward and said they are willing to distribute this movie for us.” [1] Hackers to Sony: We'll stand down if you never release the movie.…

Sony owns several digital release platforms. If they want this movie out, they could make it happen tomorrow. This is just PR speak. They might cave and release anyway, but Lynton's statement is deliberately weak and duplicitous, once again attempting to deflect all blame from themselves rather than admit to any mistake on their part.

Are those platforms able to withstand the traffic and interest that an event like this will trigger?

Re: An Offer to Sony from 2600

#72

Post by jusben1369 » Sat, Dec 20, 2014, 12:44 PM UTC

zaroth wrote: post #62

remarkEon wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that attacking businesses and commercial services is fundamentally different from attacking, say, the DOD intranet. But these are philosophical discussions that the American public (not to mention, ugh, Congress) hasn't really thought through critically. It's so difficult to articulate what an appropriate "military" response could/should be. Should we simply reinforce our Cyber defensive capabilities and not…

Completely agree. "Hasn't really thought through critically" is quite possibly the kindest way to phrase it. @logn mentioned rallying around this like we did Apollo. It's a grand idea, but I can't say I have any hope that will be the chosen approach.

It's important to note that what they're doing right now is thinking it through. They haven't doing anything yet.

Re: An Offer to Sony from 2600

#73

Post by q2 » Sat, Dec 20, 2014, 12:48 PM UTC

zaroth wrote: post #40

q2 wrote: post #24

Let us relook the issue here. Is it hackers attack on Sony or Sony making a movie on North Korean ruler(as I understand) or both? Every human/culture has likes,dislikes ...etc and every one expect others not crossing those lines for peaceful co-existence. In democracy, no doubt, there is freedom of expression but if that expression is uncomfortable to other, then there is responsibility to control/prevent that expres…

I think this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the basic meaning of artistic expression, freedom of speech, and censorship. I find that I am diametrically opposed to everything that you have stated. This also really has nothing to do with a silly little movie called "The Interview". The movie is a footnote in a brutal attack on Sony which left their entire network destroyed, their PCs wiped, their entire data s…

Whatever happened on Sony is bad, no doubt in that.

>>> As for peaceful co-existence and all that, such a thing can only be possible not by retaliating when we are offended, but by understanding we have a right to be offended, and a right to express our outrage peacefully and constructively.

I would like to see examples of this approach getting succeeded between different countries with different scales/opinions on justice,fairness. Whatever may be the reasons/circumstances, West did not pursued this approach after 9/11. I live in India which pursued peaceful/constructive approach after 26/11 but literally no change has occurred. So this looks proper approach in theory but not practical.

Re: An Offer to Sony from 2600

#74

Post by chris_wot » Sat, Dec 20, 2014, 12:50 PM UTC

q2 wrote: post #68

riffraff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a few years back we had Team America[0] in which kim jong il is painted as a crazy terrorist and in the end dies after the american world police gets to him, and is revealed to be an alien cockroach when he gets impaled on a tube. Apparently, that movie was ok, so why shouldn't this have been? There is always people whose sensitivity gets hurt by movies and books, but this should not automatically lead to stopping pu…

All things happened in the past may not be good for example financial crises, wars, tsunami's ...etc. So past is not reference to present or future. >>> There is always people whose sensitivity gets hurt by movies and books, but this should not automatically lead to stopping publishing. There are "defamation laws" in many countries. Many people/companies use them if they feel offended/hurt, even if they are not noble…

I really wish Kim Jong Un would appear in court to sue some for defamation. Then we could get him for crimes against humanity.

Re: An Offer to Sony from 2600

#75

Post by kyledrake » Sat, Dec 20, 2014, 12:58 PM UTC

The last time people got this crazy about a hack, Kevin Mitnick was thrown in solitary confinement for months because they thought he could "whistle nuclear launch codes into prison telephones". 2600 made the documentary about it, Freedom Downtime, and I strongly recommend watching it if you never have.

So what if North Korea did it (of course I'm skeptical of this, anyone with a computer can conduct the same activities, with the motivator of trolling the entire world for fun). It's not a big deal, it's not something that requires US presidential intervention. It's not even remotely as big of a deal as the CIA torture report that just came out. The CIA report threatens our legitimacy as a world power. The Sony hack just costs a corporation some money, maybe (free publicity FTW). Big. Deal.

If this is the worst a hacker can do, I'd love to see all future wars replaced with hacking. I'll take that over agent orange and torture any day.

This sad, sick notion that hackers are terrorist enemy #1 and this is the most important thing governments should be working on is, like this movie will probably be, shitty fiction, a self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuated by Hollywood in movies like War Games that make it look like we're all going to be nuked thousands of times if we don't stop the Hacker menace. Help me change the media's perception of hacking before we start throwing more whistleblowers and e-graffiti artists in prison.

TLDR: Sony got hacked, too bad, learn a lesson and fix your computer security, let's not start WW3 over it shall we?

Re: An Offer to Sony from 2600

#76

Post by k-mcgrady » Sat, Dec 20, 2014, 1:03 PM UTC

tehansen wrote: post #67

k-mcgrady wrote: post #25

Very little content here. Seems more like self-promotion and a silly offer that Sony would be stupid to take. Why let someone distribute the movie for free when they spent over $40m making it and can (worst case scenario) put it on a website they build and charge $10 to everyone that wants to watch it?

im still hoping its a very genius marketing campaign...but either way, setting the movie free (not as in beer) would send a powerfull message. cant think of a better xmas gift to humanity right now...

>> "cant think of a better xmas gift to humanity right now..."

Saving people who want to see a movie $10 is the best gift to humanity you can think of? (jk) It would definitely send a message but considering the loses they've already made from this + the hack they need to exploit the situation and make as much money as possible.

Re: An Offer to Sony from 2600

#77

Post by junto » Sat, Dec 20, 2014, 1:07 PM UTC

I guess a movie about two brave maverick North Korean TV stars heading to Washington to assassinate Obama, the evil emperor of the United States could also be a 'funny' comedy movie to watch.

Seriously though, while the plot of the film is both purile and offensive to the North Korean dictator personally, should NK be behind the attack on Sony (im still not convinced) then it is definitely an ulterly inappropriate response.

Problem is, and this is a genuine question, how should they have responded? Is the western media, specifically the US media going to publish a written complaint from NK? Probably not right. I'm not justifying their response in any way, but would be curious to know if they have any way at all to complain.

I'm playing devil's advocate here before anyone starts assuming I'm some NK sympathiser. I too would like to see the NK people freed from the tyranny and death camps they currently live under the constant threat of.

Re: An Offer to Sony from 2600

#78

Post by kiiski » Sat, Dec 20, 2014, 1:10 PM UTC

zaroth wrote: post #56

briandear wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An attack, a malicious attack by a state actor, is an attack, cyber or otherwise. What if they hacked a hospital and somehow shut down life support systems, there's little moral difference than if they sent soldiers into the hospital. Whether we like it being framed militarily or not, this IS a military issue (if it's a state actor) as that's the point of the military to defend life liberty and property. However, tha…

> 'sanctions haven't done a damned thing ever' OT, but have you read what's going on in Russian this last week? It's unbelievable how hard the sanctions have hit them, and how quickly. It's a huge story which has been drowned out in all this other noise. NK is obviously not Russia, being more insular makes it harder to sanction them. The escalation of cyber warfare, the possibility of it all being a false flag, the i…

I don't know what American news say, but from what I've gathered from Finnish news, the Russian troubles are mostly due to oil prices, and the sanctions have had very little effect.

Re: An Offer to Sony from 2600

#79

Post by icegreentea » Sat, Dec 20, 2014, 1:18 PM UTC

junto wrote: post #77

I guess a movie about two brave maverick North Korean TV stars heading to Washington to assassinate Obama, the evil emperor of the United States could also be a 'funny' comedy movie to watch. Seriously though, while the plot of the film is both purile and offensive to the North Korean dictator personally, should NK be behind the attack on Sony (im still not convinced) then it is definitely an ulterly inappropriate re…

Well, there are a few ways to parse 'should', and they really all boil down to what the hell NK even wants to do.

If they want to stop as many people from seeing the film as possible, then they should have done nothing. If they wanted to send a message that NK has the technical abilities to fuck up American (/Western) businesses, then they did the 'right' thing. If they wanted to score a less aggressive propaganda win, then they probably should have incorporated it into their next round of talks or something.

Re: An Offer to Sony from 2600

#80

Post by yourad_io » Sat, Dec 20, 2014, 1:20 PM UTC

coding4all wrote: post #15

I still have a hard time believing NK did this without any definitive evidence. Wasn't it last December that NK was sending fax messages to communicate with SK? Now they can download Terabytes from Sony without anyone noticing?

This. Not only for the technical capabilities (they could have hired someone else, yada yada), but especially for the chronology of the Interview/NK link. The first communications from the hackers addressed Sony execs while referring to "their demands", without naming them.

The NK/Interview link came out of nowhere and the group seemed to just go along with it. If this isn't Media Hyping, I don't know what is. Sony hacked for the nth time - barely newsworthy by now. Sony cyberattacked by cyberterrorists and your real-world-kids possibly in very grave danger from a cyberbomb in a theater - NewsGold(tm).

Can everyone stop using the NK link as a fact in this case? Thanks.

PS: In case you missed it, NK denied involvement in this early on. Usually this wouldn't mean much (a state's denials? please) but remember who we're talking about here! When has NK passed up an opportunity to display their superiority?