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| Sony Pictures warns news organizations to destroy ‘stolen’ e-mails, documents | Sony Pictures warns news organizations to destroy ‘stolen’ e-mails, documents |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| After weeks of silence, Sony Pictures Entertainment acknowledged a voluminous, embarrassing leak of internal e-mails and other materials on Sunday, warning numerous media outlets in a strongly-worded letter against publishing or using the “stolen” corporate data exposed by unidentified hackers. | After weeks of silence, Sony Pictures Entertainment acknowledged a voluminous, embarrassing leak of internal e-mails and other materials on Sunday, warning numerous media outlets in a strongly-worded letter against publishing or using the “stolen” corporate data exposed by unidentified hackers. |
| The materials, particularly e-mails, have provided an extraordinary glimpse inside one of the world’s best-known corporations. The audience for stories based on the materials has gone far beyond other, drier corporate leaks presumably because of the subject matter: the high-powered glitzy world of Hollywood. | The materials, particularly e-mails, have provided an extraordinary glimpse inside one of the world’s best-known corporations. The audience for stories based on the materials has gone far beyond other, drier corporate leaks presumably because of the subject matter: the high-powered glitzy world of Hollywood. |
| The company threatened legal action against news organizations that failed to heed its request, a strategy some legal scholars believe would have a rough time passing muster under the First Amendment, which protects freedom of the press. The documents were stolen by hackers, who released them on the Internet. While no news organization has been accused of participating in the theft, the letter intended to make the media think hard about publishing again. | The company threatened legal action against news organizations that failed to heed its request, a strategy some legal scholars believe would have a rough time passing muster under the First Amendment, which protects freedom of the press. The documents were stolen by hackers, who released them on the Internet. While no news organization has been accused of participating in the theft, the letter intended to make the media think hard about publishing again. |
| Sony’s action came just as the hackers — who are demanding the company withdraw an upcoming comedy based on a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — reportedly threatened another dump of stolen data. | Sony’s action came just as the hackers — who are demanding the company withdraw an upcoming comedy based on a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — reportedly threatened another dump of stolen data. |
| Written by renowned litigator David Boies on Sony’s behalf, the three-page letter, which was published by Re/Code, demanded news organizations refrain from downloading the documents and from “examining, copying, disseminating, distributing” them. The letter, which opened with a generic, “Dear General Counsel,” also insisted the news organizations destroy any materials in their possession. Outlets that reported receiving the letter Sunday included the New York Times, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Variety, Gawker, the Los Angeles Times and Re/code. Scores of news organizations, if not hundreds, have done stories off the leaked materials. | |
| The letter said Sony Pictures “does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading, or making any use of the stolen information.” The company asked “cooperation in destroying the stolen information.” | The letter said Sony Pictures “does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading, or making any use of the stolen information.” The company asked “cooperation in destroying the stolen information.” |
| The letter threatened legal action against news organizations that fail to comply with the request: “If you do not comply with this request, and the stolen information is used or disseminated by you in any manner, Sony Pictures Entertainment will have no choice but to hold you responsible for any damage or loss arising from such use or dissemination by you.” It said Sony was at risk of “loss of value of intellectual property and trade secrets” as a result of the media’s actions. | The letter threatened legal action against news organizations that fail to comply with the request: “If you do not comply with this request, and the stolen information is used or disseminated by you in any manner, Sony Pictures Entertainment will have no choice but to hold you responsible for any damage or loss arising from such use or dissemination by you.” It said Sony was at risk of “loss of value of intellectual property and trade secrets” as a result of the media’s actions. |
| The letter marked the latest turn in a hacking drama that has embarrassed Sony as well as a number of big Hollywood players. The contents of the leaked data, which some analysts suspect may be linked to a North Korean regime furious over the release of Sony’s movie “The Interview,” included information on Sony’s salaries, business dealings, private health records and executive correspondence. Those letters revealed a racially insensitive conversation involving President Obama and disparaging remarks of some of Hollywood’s biggest actors, including Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio. | The letter marked the latest turn in a hacking drama that has embarrassed Sony as well as a number of big Hollywood players. The contents of the leaked data, which some analysts suspect may be linked to a North Korean regime furious over the release of Sony’s movie “The Interview,” included information on Sony’s salaries, business dealings, private health records and executive correspondence. Those letters revealed a racially insensitive conversation involving President Obama and disparaging remarks of some of Hollywood’s biggest actors, including Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio. |
| Boies is one of the nation’s most prominent litigators. He represented the U.S. government in its antitrust suit against Microsoft, was the lead counsel for Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 Florida election case that reached the Supreme Court and, most recently, fought a California proposition banning same-sex marriage. He did not respond late last night to a request for comment by The Post. | Boies is one of the nation’s most prominent litigators. He represented the U.S. government in its antitrust suit against Microsoft, was the lead counsel for Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 Florida election case that reached the Supreme Court and, most recently, fought a California proposition banning same-sex marriage. He did not respond late last night to a request for comment by The Post. |
| Sony’s ability to follow through with legal action is uncertain at best, legal scholars said last night. “The short answer is that publishing such leaked material, even if it was illegally extracted by hackers, is likely to be legal,” said University of California at Los Angeles law professor Eugene Volokh in an e-mail last night. He cited a 2001 Supreme Court case, Bartnicki v. Vopper, which he said “held that a publisher had a First Amendment right to publish illegally intercepted phone calls (when it wasn’t involved in the initial illegal interception.)” Volokh writes a blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, that appears in the Washington Post. Here’s his post on this subject. | Sony’s ability to follow through with legal action is uncertain at best, legal scholars said last night. “The short answer is that publishing such leaked material, even if it was illegally extracted by hackers, is likely to be legal,” said University of California at Los Angeles law professor Eugene Volokh in an e-mail last night. He cited a 2001 Supreme Court case, Bartnicki v. Vopper, which he said “held that a publisher had a First Amendment right to publish illegally intercepted phone calls (when it wasn’t involved in the initial illegal interception.)” Volokh writes a blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, that appears in the Washington Post. Here’s his post on this subject. |
| No one has accused news organizations of stealing the data from Sony. Many of them, including the New York Times and The Washington Post, reported on the material based on the news reports of others. | No one has accused news organizations of stealing the data from Sony. Many of them, including the New York Times and The Washington Post, reported on the material based on the news reports of others. |
| George Freeman, a former attorney for the New York Times who now runs the Media Law Resource Center, said Sony’s demands struck him as a “a stretch.” He said newspapers and other publications have reported leaked corporate and government documents “scores of times,” and this instance appears similar to those. | George Freeman, a former attorney for the New York Times who now runs the Media Law Resource Center, said Sony’s demands struck him as a “a stretch.” He said newspapers and other publications have reported leaked corporate and government documents “scores of times,” and this instance appears similar to those. |
| “I can’t think of any instance where the innocent beneficiary of leaks would get restrained from publishing,” Freeman said, referencing the news outlets’ decisions to publish the Pentagon Papers. “If anything, there would be less a problem for media in printing corporate documents like these than printing classified documents, which the government has claimed can violate the Espionage Act.” | “I can’t think of any instance where the innocent beneficiary of leaks would get restrained from publishing,” Freeman said, referencing the news outlets’ decisions to publish the Pentagon Papers. “If anything, there would be less a problem for media in printing corporate documents like these than printing classified documents, which the government has claimed can violate the Espionage Act.” |
| Investigators have identified seven proxy servers around the world the hackers used to route their attack, one of which was based at a hotel in Thailand. The others were in Poland, Italy, Cyprus, Bolivia, Singapore and the United States, said a person familiar with the investigation who spoke with The Post last week on the condition of anonymity because the probe remained incomplete. | Investigators have identified seven proxy servers around the world the hackers used to route their attack, one of which was based at a hotel in Thailand. The others were in Poland, Italy, Cyprus, Bolivia, Singapore and the United States, said a person familiar with the investigation who spoke with The Post last week on the condition of anonymity because the probe remained incomplete. |
| The FBI, which has been investigating the incident, has not yet publicly named a culprit. | The FBI, which has been investigating the incident, has not yet publicly named a culprit. |
| While most of the publicity from the leaks focused on embarrassing e-mail exchanges between executives and snarky comments about stars such as Jolie, Boies’s letter focused on a different class of information, including communications between lawyer and client, private financial data, intellectual property and “business secrets.” | While most of the publicity from the leaks focused on embarrassing e-mail exchanges between executives and snarky comments about stars such as Jolie, Boies’s letter focused on a different class of information, including communications between lawyer and client, private financial data, intellectual property and “business secrets.” |
| It noted that “the perpetrators of the theft have threatened” Sony “for the stated purpose of materially harming” the company unless it withdraws the motion picture from distribution. | It noted that “the perpetrators of the theft have threatened” Sony “for the stated purpose of materially harming” the company unless it withdraws the motion picture from distribution. |
| Sony Letter to Re/code by Arik Hesseldahl | Sony Letter to Re/code by Arik Hesseldahl |