Sony demands halt to reporting from leaked documents

Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal has gotten most of the attention from the document hack

Sony Pictures is going on the offensive against news outlets that are publishing details of tens of thousands of hacked emails that have embarrassed the company.  

Lawyers for the film studio sent out letters to media companies that have reported on the contents of the hacked emails. The letters state that the data was stolen from Sony Pictures and ask that media outlets destroy any of the documents that they may posses.

The vast troves of data are slowly being released online by hackers calling themselves the 'Guardians of Peace.' The documents are widely available on peer-to-peer file sharing sites online. It is widely believed that North Korea is behind the hack attack.

'(Sony Pictures Entertainment) does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading, or making any use of the Stolen Information, and to request your cooperation in destroying the Stolen Information,' reads a letter from David Boies - the star attorney hired by Sony Pictures.

The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Gawker Media published stories reporting that they had each received a letter from David Boies, an attorney for Sony, demanding that the outlets stop reporting information contained in the documents and immediately destroy them.




RELATED ARTICLES

Previous

1

2

Next



Sony forced Seth Rogen to change Kim Jong-un assassination... Leaked Sony emails discuss how 'loon' American Hustle... 'I'm not broke and I'm NOT sleeping with poker hostess':... 'I fear I've let you all down and haven't slept in 30...

Andrew Garfield may be booted from Spider-Man movie series,... Sony chief Amy Pascal is 'facing the sack over embarrassing... Sony hackers dump SEVENTH cache of files and call it a...



Share this article

Share

15 shares


MailOnline has not received a legal warning from Sony over the hacked documents.    


A spokesman for Boies confirmed he sent a letter to certain media outlets on behalf of Sony but declined to discuss details.

Disclosures from the internal documents have caused turmoil at the studio, a unit of Japan's Sony Corp, and shed light on internal discussions key to the company's future. 




One theory behind the cyberattack is that it was directed by North Korean sympathizers - or the government itself - as a result of 'The Interview,' which features the assassination of Kim Jong-un

For PasteBinz instance, the unidentified hackers have released troves of documents that include employee salaries and financial information, marketing plans and contracts with business partners.

In addition, the documents that have emerged included an exchange in which Co-Chairman Amy Pascal joked about President Barack Obama's race. After media outlets reported that, Pascal subsequently issued a public apology for 'insensitive and inappropriate' emails.






Pascal is scheduled to meet this week with civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton, whose spokeswoman says he is weighing whether to call for her resignation. Pascal did not respond to a request for comment, and a Sony spokeswoman declined to comment on Pascal's future.

Sony, in a memo to staff on December 2, acknowledged that a large amount of data was stolen by the hackers but has declined to confirm specific documents.

Over the weekend, a message claiming to be from the Guardians of Peace, a group that says it carried out the cyber attack on Sony, warned of additional disclosures.

'We are preparing for you a Christmas gift,' said the message posted on a site for sharing files called Pastebin. 'The gift will be larger quantities of data. And it will be more interesting.'