Sony Pictures Entertainment, suffering a steady flow of embarrassment following the incremental release of private emails relating to top-shelf celebrities, has warned media outlets against releasing any more information.
Last month’s sensational leak of Sony executive emails provided
the public with a rare peek into the behind-the-scenes, hyper-ego
realm of Hollywood, where superstars like George Clooney wail
about poor movie reviews, and Leonardo DiCaprio is slammed. This
winter’s blockbuster feature, however, may be coming to an end if
Sony’s legal team gets it way.
In a stern letter to media outlets, Sony attorney David Boies on
Sunday labeled the hacked correspondence between top Sony
executives and major Hollywood stars as “stolen
information” and demanded it be withheld from the public
domain.
The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and the New York Times each
reported that they had received a letter from the lawyer.
Remember when Sony installed malware on many thousands of machines, and never got prosecuted under any of the draconian laws?
— Jason Scott (@textfiles) December 15, 2014
Sony Pictures Entertainment “does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading or making any use” of the hacked data, Boies wrote in his letter to the media companies, Reuters reported.
“If you don’t comply with this request,” the letter
continued, Sony “will have no choice but to hold you
responsible for any damage or loss arising from such use or
dissemination by you.”
New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said in a statement:
"Any decisions about whether or how to use any of the
information will take into account both the significance of the
news and the questions of how the information emerged and who has
access to it."
Since last month, the Tokyo-based company has been suffering the
torturous, slow-drip release of sensitive emails that depict
their film superstars in a much less glamorous light.
Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, one of the highest-paid actors in
show business, was bruised in an email after he reportedly turned
down an offer to play Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic.
“Horrible behavior,” concluded producer Mark Gordon.
“Actually despicable,” retorts Amy Pascal, Sony’s
co-chair whose job is reportedly at risk over some of her racier
comments, including one involving President Barack Obama that has
strong racist overtones.
“Should I ask [Obama] if he liked DJANGO?” Pascal wrote
in reference to Quentin Tarantino’s slave-themed Western, ‘Django
Unchained’.
Another bit of leaked data hit closer to home for Sony Pictures,
shining a painful light on gender pay inequality inside the
Japanese company. Of its 6,000 employees, 17 were earning $1
million or more, but only one of those employees is a woman.
Can you believe that Sony chief Amy Pascal wants to meet with Al Sharpton to seek forgiveness for her racial slurs. Al is laughing at her!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2014
Not everybody, however, has been sympathetic to Sony’s efforts to
shut down the release of the leaked internal documents.
“It is unfortunate that Sony got hacked, and lost control
over its internal information,” Kurt Opsahl, deputy general
counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the NYT.
“But the solution is not to muzzle the press.”
Over the weekend, the Guardians of Peace, the group that has
claimed responsibility for the Sony hacking, originally thought
to be from North Korea, warned of more disclosures.
"We are preparing for you a Christmas gift," said the
message posted on file-sharing site Pastebin. "The gift will
be larger quantities of data. And it will be more
interesting."