Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Sony lawyers warn press to destroy documents from hack

LOS ANGELES — Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is hitting back at media outlets for using stolen documents to report on the fallout from a devastating hack at the studio. Attorneys for the studio are asking media outlets to destroy any information emailed to journalists from the hack.

LOS ANGELES — Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is hitting back at media outlets for using stolen documents to report on the fallout from a devastating hack at the studio. Attorneys for the studio are asking media outlets to destroy any information emailed to journalists from the hack.

“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,” read the letter from Sony attorney David Boies.

The security breach and subsequent data dump has made public such internal financial documents as film budgets, earnings statements and emails from top Sony executives. Variety magazine received the letter from Boies along with several other news organisations such as The New York Times, which initially reported on the contents of the note.

The note from Sony arrived just as hackers released their eighth leak of confidential studio material. It’s not clear who is behind the attack on Sony, but suspicion has landed on North Korea. The country is angry over the upcoming release of The Interview, a Seth Rogen comedy that depicts an assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Boies’ letter alluded to The Interview, stating that the hack was part of “an on-going campaign explicitly seeking to prevent SPE from distributing a motion picture”.

In terms of legal precedent for using stolen materials for news-gathering purposes, the United States’ Supreme Court ruled on one occasion in 2001 that a radio station could not be held liable for broadcasting an illegally recorded conversation because the station was a third party and not the one committing an illegal act. Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said then that the conversation was a matter of public interest. REUTERS

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.