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Guardians of Peace Amy Pascal Sony Pictures

Sony orders media to put the lid on embarrassing leaked email reports with legal threat

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

December 15, 2014 | 3 min read

Sony Pictures Entertainment has issued legal threats to several media companies over their covereage of leaked Sony documents stolen in a cataclysmic cyber attack.

Sony executive Amy Pascal has seen years of emails leaked

The information, which was leaked by hacking collective the ‘Guardians of Peace’ (GoP), included the email correspondence of company co-chairperson Amy Pascal. Among her dispatches was a damaging rant where Oscar-winning director Scott Rudin dubbed Angelina Jolie a ‘spoiled brat’.

The letter, issued to the Hollywood Reporter, the New York Times, Bloomberg and more news outlets, requested that the companies cease reporting on the “stolen information”.

The Hollywood Reporter published the threat, signed by US lawyer David Boies on Sunday. It read: “As you are no doubt aware, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has been the victim of a theft of data stored on its computers… the perpetrators of the theft have threatened SPE and its staff and are using the dissemination of both private and company information for the stated purpose of materially harming SPE unless SPE submits and withdraws the motion picture from distribution.

“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.”

Sony demanded that the media avoid reporting on the leaked documents and help with their removal from the internet.

The attacks were rumoured to be perpetrated by North Korea in response to Seth Rogan and James Franco’s upcoming movie ‘the Interview’ which will portray Kim Jung Un’s head exploding in a scene dubbed an act of terrorism by the hermit state. However, a DPRK news outlet denied it was involved in the cyber-attack.

This month the company has had five upcoming movie releases leaked, along with the contact information of its top stars and employees and the script to the new Bond film.

Guardians of Peace Amy Pascal Sony Pictures

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