Sony Pictures Entertainment was warned by hackers to “obey” or else, now the entertainment giant is warning news organizations how to treat its stolen data in the wake of the attack.
Sony Pictures attorney David Boies wrote a three-page letter to several news media outlets, noting that the Sony documents were stolen information, and that anyone who received a copy should not review them — but rather destroy them. The New York Times was the first to report on the strongly worded letter.
“We are writing to ensure that you are aware that SPE does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading or making any use of the stolen information, and to request your cooperation in destroying the stolen information,” Boies said in the letter.
The Hollywood Reporter and Recode were among other outlets that received copies of the letter, which issues a threat to hold news outlets that fail to conform to the request “responsible for any damage or loss arising from such use or dissemination by you.” Sony Pictures was not immediately available to comment.
Sony Feeling the Heat
Sony Pictures Entertainment’s discovered its computer systems were hacked in November by a group that calls itself the Guardians of Peace. The hackers left a message with a list of threats, and told Sony it had “secrets.” The message said: “We’ve already warned you, and this is just a beginning. We continue till our request be met….If you don’t obey us, we’ll release data shown below to the world.”
When Sony didn’t meet the demands not to release a film called “The Interview,” the hackers leaked e-mails, financial documents, employee Social Security numbers and compensation data, and even unreleased movies to public file-sharing sites to embarrass the movie giant. The e-mails, for example, contained messages between Sony co-Chairman Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin commenting against megastar Angelina Jolie and financier Megan Ellison, according to Fox News.
Some industry watchers believed North Korea was to blame for the hack. There was speculation that Sony’s coming comedy “The Interview,” starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, outraged the Communist government because of its story line in which journalists are enlisted to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. But according to the Telegraph, a North Korean diplomat has denied that the government was behind the hack attack on Sony Pictures.
Are Media Outlets Liable?
We caught up with Erik Stallman, director of general counsel of the Open Internet Project, to get his thoughts on the Sony demand letter. He told us he would not comment on the substance of the e-mails but does have a clear opinion on the threatening letter by Sony.
“I think the law is fairly clear that the First Amendment protects the news organizations in their discussion of this information,” Stallman said. “This issue was sort of addressed in the Bartnicki case and settled there.”
In Bartnicki v. Vopper, the U.S. Supreme Court decided against the plaintiff in the case, relieving the defendant of any liability for broadcasting a recorded conversation about a teacher’s strike that took place between a labor union official and union members. Since the radio station did not break the law to obtain the tape, the court sided with the defendant.
“The demand letter really didn’t put forward a specific theory of liability for the news organizations so I am not sure how they are planning to get around the Bartnicki case,” Stallman said. “Streaming the movie content, regardless of where you got it from, would be an actionable infringement but that isn’t the case here.”
