An Editorial from the Global Times on "The interview"

[Doug]

Okay. first I want to say that i hope that everyone had a great Christmas, had long family time and enjoy themselves immensely.

 

Now I would like to play devil's advocate. Hope i don't get burnt to badly or maybe I do.

 

Questions:

 

1. Didn't a senator's aide just get sacked a few weeks ago because a comment she made about President Obama's daughter?

2. What would happen in Thailand if this movie's setting was in Thailand and the interview was with the King?

3. There may have been some hope when Kim when he first took over. After seeing this movie will he simple last and dump all his missile and bombs in the ocean? Satire is great but perhaps there is a time and place for it. Is it worth it now, so that Sony and movie land can make a buck or two million bucks?

4. Freedom of speech is great and is a necessity but what about freedom of privacy. What happen to those Sony's executives who had their private emails exposed ( talking about actresses such as A. Jolie) and re-exposed on national press., time and time again? What was the purpose of that? Making fun of that executive's stupidity?

5. Making fun of a world leader, yes it can fun. But there are people in some country who think that hanging US President's in effigy is fun. There are even $%^& who like to burn our flag. This is not funny to me. what about you all?

6. Where should the line be drawn? Who knows?

 

OF course this post was done all in satire. No need to frost or roast my hiney!!

It bugs the hell out of me that stuff on twitter or facebook is used as an excuse to can school teachers and yes a Senators aid worker and etc. It is all outside of work. Heck you ought to see the public comments made by employees of the company I work for and NOTHING has ever been done to them. I don't even understand the apologies of some of these folks. Heck they are loosing their job anyway. Stand your ground folks.

[Randy W]

The travel scene through China isn't too bad, considering it was green-screened in Vancouver - http://magnetbahnforum.de/index.php?in-PR-of-China

 

with karst scenery and extra smoke tossed in

 

[dnoblett]

Well it did not take long for it to hit Netflix...

 

http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70305895?trkid=13462047

 

 

 

While some Twitter users like the film, many more say it’s “horrible”

 

Netflix users said screw the reviews and streamed “The Interview” in large numbers this weekend. But judging by the reaction on Twitter, many people regretted the decision with more a few describing the film as “horrible.”

 

A Twitter user named Stryker said that while the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy makes some valid critiques of U.S. policy, overall it “was a really horrible movie.”

 

The comedy, which angered North Korea for its depiction of the country’s leader, hit Netflix Saturday in the United States and Canada. The film’s debut on the streaming giant followed its limited release in 331 independent theaters on Christmas Day, marking the first time a major studio had opened a movie in theaters and offered it online at the same time.

 

As of January 20, “The Interview” had surpassed $40 million from online and on-demand viewings. It’s also made $5.9 million at the box office, raising its total take to $46 million on all platforms. That’s not close to the $90 million that Sony spent making and marketing the comedy, but it’s better than nothing, which the studio was facing when it initially pulled the film.

 

As for the reviews, the controversial comedy has a relatively weak 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes with TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde calling it “meandering and sloppy.”

 

The criticism on Twitter was just as harsh, with the hashtag #TheInterview trending throughout the weekend. While some folks genuinely liked it, others were bewildered.

 

http://www.thewrap.com/the-interview-hits-netflix-social-media-explodes/

[Randy W]

U.S. asks China to help combat North Korean hacking after attack on Sony

 

Administration officials asked the Chinese Embassy in Washington in a meeting Thursday to block Pyongyang’s access to Internet routers and servers based in China, to expel North Korean hackers living in China and to pressure the Kim regime to end its cyber offensive against companies in the United States, according to one official.

 

Most of North Korea’s telecommunications traffic runs through China’s infrastructure, although some of it also is routed through Russia and North Korea’s own limited networks.

 

. . .

 

“We will never pardon those undesirable elements keen on hurting the dignity” of Kim, the spokesman said. If North Korea decided to retaliate, it would “ target with legitimacy those responsible” for acting against the country, he said.

 

“The army of the DPRK has the will and ability to do so,” said the statement carried by KCNA.

 

 

Of course, Sony could always decide to just keep their barn door locked.

 

 

 

An interesting little coda to "The Interview" fiasco

 

 

from the NY Times

 

 

North Korean Spy to Be Charged in Sony Pictures Hacking

 

 

The attack wiped out 70 percent of Sony Pictures’ computer capability, erasing all the data on about half of the company’s personal computers and more than half of its servers, and was done in retaliation for the company’s production of a comedic film, “The Interview,” that mocked the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and depicted a plot to assassinate him.

 

The United States government has long explored charging the hacker, Pak Jin-hyok, but indicting him took time because much of the information against him had been classified and could not be included in a criminal indictment.

 

Mr. Pak appeared to work for North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, the country’s closest equivalent to the C.I.A., according to American intelligence officials. The same intelligence agency is believed to be behind the WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled the British health care system last year and thefts from the Bangladeshi central bank that reaped tens of millions of dollars for the North.

 

. . .

 

The November 2014 hack shocked the studio’s 7,000 employees, who were greeted with macabre images of the studio chief Michael Lynton’s severed head when they turned on their computers. Sony shut down all of its computer systems, including those in overseas offices, leaving the company without voice mail, email or production systems, essentially crippling operations.

 

Early communications from the hackers did not mention “The Interview,” and the notion of North Korean involvement was little more than a paranoid whisper at Sony. But that fear was confirmed soon after when the F.B.I. pinned the crime on North Korea and the White House imposed sanctions on the country.

 

[Randy W]