[gomoho]

Originally Posted by rp001

The bottom line is this was a corporate decision, to protect their employees and customers from a threat they perceived. I'm sick and tired of people constantly blaming every wrong decision made on this president. Just open your ears and minds and stop listening to faux news long enough to get the truth. I can't believe someone actually wants to start a war over this crap! Go ahead lead the charge, I'm right behind you!

You must have missed the press conference which I watched from start to finish on FOX news. The POTUS said Sony should not have caved; however he wouldn't have had to pay the lawsuits if they blew up a movie theater. And he said we would respond so you might want to contact him to help with the charge. He also said he wishes SONY had contacted him before they made this decision so it really does impact the country more than you want to believe. This was done to our country via SONY.

[Chi-Town]

Here's a recap of the news conference:

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/bara...-movie-n271786

[janmcn]

Originally Posted by gomoho

You must have missed the press conference which I watched from start to finish on FOX news. The POTUS said Sony should not have caved; however he wouldn't have had to pay the lawsuits if they blew up a movie theater. And he said we would respond so you might want to contact him to help with the charge. He also said he wishes SONY had contacted him before they made this decision so it really does impact the country more than you want to believe. This was done to our country via SONY.

If anyone looks back over the events of this past week, they would realize it was the four major theater chain owners who decided they would not show the movie therefore forcing Sony to cancel the opening. If there is no distribution, there can be no screenings. It was the theater owners who forced Sony's hand, and it would have been the theaters who would be paying the lawsuits had something bad happened.

[TexaninVA]

Originally Posted by rp001

The bottom line is this was a corporate decision, to protect their employees and customers from a threat they perceived. I'm sick and tired of people constantly blaming every wrong decision made on this president. Just open your ears and minds and stop listening to faux news long enough to get the truth. I can't believe someone actually wants to start a war over this crap! Go ahead lead the charge, I'm right behind you!

Sounds like you are thus placing yourself squarely in the camp of no big deal and therefore we as a nation should do .... absolutely nothing about the NK intrusion and threat

See no evil, hear no evil etc

[Chi-Town]

Let's see what we won't see this Christmas:

http://youtu.be/DkJA1rb8Nxo

[TexaninVA]

Originally Posted by janmcn

If anyone looks back over the events of this past week, they would realize it was the four major theater chain owners who decided they would not show the movie therefore forcing Sony to cancel the opening. If there is no distribution, there can be no screenings. It was the theater owners who forced Sony's hand, and it would have been the theaters who would be paying the lawsuits had something bad happened.

I would agree that the theatre chains were cowed entirely and courage was completely lacking ...but now is the time also for Sony to correct their mistake and declare openly that they will find a way to release the film

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by rp001

The bottom line is this was a corporate decision, to protect their employees and customers from a threat they perceived. I'm sick and tired of people constantly blaming every wrong decision made on this president. Just open your ears and minds and stop listening to faux news long enough to get the truth. I can't believe someone actually wants to start a war over this crap! Go ahead lead the charge, I'm right behind you!

No the bottom line is that a foreign power threatened to harm the people who chose to see a movie in our cities in this country.

I am sick and tired of blaming corporations and large businesses for everything wrong. Open your eyes and take a simple course in economics. We are strong because of our vibrant business community but any tax break given to them some of you act like it is treason. They employ millions of us and it isn't an easy job being the head of a large company, making decisions to keep the business running in the black. They get big bucks because their job warrants big bucks. I am sick of people who don't get the big picture and choose not to see how things work and I am sick of their class envy. People are paid for doing jobs that are hard and heavy and stressful and that potentially make money for the company and feed the people who work for it.

If we criticize the president on this forum, we are not alone. His approval rating is very low. But to be fair, no human seems to be able to please the fickle public and at the end of their terms in office, it seems all Presidents fall from grace.

You must remember that the majority of people who live in The Villages are traditional or moderate in their views. We represent a pretty pure segment of solvent, law abiding older people who are good old fashioned moral people.

[TexaninVA]

Originally Posted by GoldenHurricane

For the record, Sony is a Japanese company. How then do we know that the hackers' attack is directed solely at the United States?

Sony - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In December, 1941, I imagine some argued "well, technically speaking, Hawaii is not really part of the United States ...."

[Chi-Town]

Originally Posted by TexaninVA

In December, 1941, I imagine some argued "well, technically speaking, Hawaii is not really part of the United States ...."

Nice segue. Went from Sony Corporation (Japan) to Hawaii (U.S. territory). It's amazing Hollywood was able to release Tora! Tora! Tora!.

[blueash]

Originally Posted by TexaninVA

I think assigning a moral equivalence to the two cyber attacks is a mistake. To put it in perspective, the US/Israeli cyber attack was attempting to take out Iran's nuclear program or at least set it back. NK's attack was to intimidate a US studio from releasing a film critical of the Dear Leader.

I also think that one has realize that, whether we like it or not, we do live in a world of both good and evil. I think Iran and NK line up as what most people would call evil regimes ... off the charts actually (esp NK), thus my belief is we engage to win, and use our power to intimidate where possible the evil actors from doing ... what one of them just did.

It is possible Iran, or China and Russia are involved with the NK hack attack. We will have to deal with it if that's the case, and I will list some options /ideas in another post.

In the meantime, and while with caveats, it sounds as if you too agree that we as a nation can not let the NK attack go unanswered ... am I assessing this correctly?

Let me see if I have this right. You agree that the US was directly involved with a cyber attack against an Iranian government project, a top secret Iranian government project. But because we are the good guys and they are the bad guys, Iran deserved it and should just not respond, or perhaps they should respond by bending to our will. NK attacks a Japanese company with a US division and you belief this is a more serious issue requiring a significant governmental response? Now we know China hacks into our corporations stealing their work, and likely lots of other nations are targets of the Chinese. These are much more important thefts than a movie and releasing embarrassing emails. Yet we continue to talk with China, trade with China, expect China to buy our bonds. We certainly have options with China, cut off trade, block their financial institutions from interacting with ours, prohibit US tourism, bomb bomb bombs away. Instead we have expressed our outrage, told our companies to strengthen their defenses, and likely increased our own cyber espionage.

http://csis.org/files/publication/14...Since_2006.pdf

So given the serious intrusions into our government's and our infrastructure's computers so often in the past and that we certainly are doing the same, I am not really outraged enough by Sony being targeted by either N Korea or someone else with N Korea's blessing to start a shooting war. I am more surprised by Americans being so afraid that Sony actually took these threats seriously and shut down the film. Maybe it was so bad that this saved them money on a looser.

As soon as air traffic opened after 911, Mrs. Blueash and I got on a jet and flew to Europe despite all the dire warnings of friends and the bloviators. Sometimes the way to deal with a bully is to just carry on and don't give him the satisfaction of seeing you react. How do you propose we

"intimidate the evil actors"

and are you certain they are rational enough to not retaliate to our intimidation with a major escalation.

[gomoho]

Originally Posted by janmcn

If anyone looks back over the events of this past week, they would realize it was the four major theater chain owners who decided they would not show the movie therefore forcing Sony to cancel the opening. If there is no distribution, there can be no screenings. It was the theater owners who forced Sony's hand, and it would have been the theaters who would be paying the lawsuits had something bad happened.

I believe you are incorrect about the theater owners - SONY pulled the film and even if they had not they would have been just as liable because they were aware of the threat.

[janmcn]

Originally Posted by gomoho

I believe you are incorrect about the theater owners - SONY pulled the film and even if they had not they would have been just as liable because they were aware of the threat.

Sony Statement At Obama: Interview Release On Other Platforms - Business Insider


An excerpt from Sony's statement: "The decision not to move forward with the December 25 theatrical release of 'The Interview' was made as a result of the majority of the nation's theater owners choosing not to screen the film. This was their decision".

Read the statement in its entirety in the above link.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by blueash

Let me see if I have this right. You agree that the US was directly involved with a cyber attack against an Iranian government project, a top secret Iranian government project. But because we are the good guys and they are the bad guys, Iran deserved it and should just not respond, or perhaps they should respond by bending to our will. NK attacks a Japanese company with a US division and you belief this is a more serious issue requiring a significant governmental response? Now we know China hacks into our corporations stealing their work, and likely lots of other nations are targets of the Chinese. These are much more important thefts than a movie and releasing embarrassing emails. Yet we continue to talk with China, trade with China, expect China to buy our bonds. We certainly have options with China, cut off trade, block their financial institutions from interacting with ours, prohibit US tourism, bomb bomb bombs away. Instead we have expressed our outrage, told our companies to strengthen their defenses, and likely increased our own cyber espionage.

http://csis.org/files/publication/14...Since_2006.pdf

So given the serious intrusions into our government's and our infrastructure's computers so often in the past and that we certainly are doing the same, I am not really outraged enough by Sony being targeted by either N Korea or someone else with N Korea's blessing to start a shooting war. I am more surprised by Americans being so afraid that Sony actually took these threats seriously and shut down the film. Maybe it was so bad that this saved them money on a looser.

As soon as air traffic opened after 911, Mrs. Blueash and I got on a jet and flew to Europe despite all the dire warnings of friends and the bloviators. Sometimes the way to deal with a bully is to just carry on and don't give him the satisfaction of seeing you react. How do you propose we

"intimidate the evil actors"

and are you certain they are rational enough to not retaliate to our intimidation with a major escalation.

I like your thinking. I would like to view The Interview to see what kind of portrayal it has of the North Korean leader.

Sony, the movie distributors and others were probably persuaded by their legal departments to cave into liability concerns.

[GoldenHurricane]

What we're missing at the movie theaters due to Kim Jong-un's hostile censorship: The Interview's Trailer #2. I'm not sure it's a movie I'd normally see, but now it's the principle of the thing which has me defending The Interview.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=frsvWVEHowg

[TrudyM]

Originally Posted by janmcn

If anyone looks back over the events of this past week, they would realize it was the four major theater chain owners who decided they would not show the movie therefore forcing Sony to cancel the opening. If there is no distribution, there can be no screenings. It was the theater owners who forced Sony's hand, and it would have been the theaters who would be paying the lawsuits had something bad happened.

Exactly.
However if I was at Sony making the decision, I would have made the movie and slightly altered the names and places as is quite often done in satire. (mostly to avoid law suits) Everyone knows who it is really about but ones but is so to speak covered.
I can't help but wonder if someone at Sony will leak the movie to the internet. Then we can all download it and North Korea can go to.....

I also think we need to invest serious money in cyber security development. As it doesn't directly affect the bottom line there has been little money in it so not a lot of development over the past few years. Look at any of the software providers and their security suite division is not one of their larger departments.

Protecting our credit our banks and our infrastructure is a matter of national defense and bucks need to be spent.