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Kim Hollis: Weigh in with your thoughts about the Sony hack and in particular the cancellation of The Interview and the events leading up to it.

Vijay Kumar: Reaction #1: How silly of Sony... they give in to the hackers.
Reaction #2: Wait... the theaters refuse to screen the movie. What choice does Sony have then? Release it online only.
Reaction #3: I want to see it now. Is this a publicity gimmick?

Bruce Hall: I realize I am only the millionth person to mention this - but giving into terrorists (or whatever you'd like to call these fools) only emboldens them. While I certainly understand the fear factor involved, the cynic in me tends to believe that this was less a matter of public safety and more a matter of nobody wanting to be held accountable in the improbable scenario where something actually happened.

To their credit, Sony didn't seem interested in pulling the film from release until everyone refused to screen it. After that, they really had no choice. What impresses me less is that they now appear content to discredit the film entirely, refusing to release it on ANY platform. In my mind, this is the exact same form of capitulation, and it's equally disingenuous.

Now that American theater chains and Sony Pictures have shown they can be pushed around by cyber terrorists with a questionable grasp of code - and an even more questionable grasp of English - if I were part of the so-called "Guardians of Peace", why would I be inclined to back off?

Capturing and murdering innocent journalists and aid workers requires a lot of resources. Making threats from behind a keyboard is just as cowardly, but takes as much effort as opening another can of Mountain Dew. So now that we've proven to them how easy this is, where does it end? Now that they know all they have to do is say "Boo," why should we expect it to stop?

Suppose the terrorists come back and threaten to blow up Times Square if they release the next Bond movie (and who's to say they won't)? Then what? The Interview is a high profile film starring popular actors, but it wasn't the one billion dollar cash cow that James Bond is. THAT is the kind of threat that will truly separate the boys from the men.

I think that theaters are overreacting to this somewhat dubious threat - but admittedly, that's a hard position to be in. I'm pretty sure AMC theaters would prefer not to be sued out of existence in the unlikely event North Korea unleashed their Ultimate Doomsday Device on unsuspecting moviegoers.

I am more disappointed in Sony, not just for their lackluster IT security infrastructure (the biggest threat to Corporate Security is not cyber terrorists, but a lazy IT department) but also for taking The Interview off the grid. I agree - release it for free online, and beat the terrorists at their own game. This is a silly movie about the completely fictional assassination attempt of a man who remains this pathetically insecure despite having a pile of nuclear weapons at his disposal.

The joke tells itself.

Far more people will see this movie if it's made freely available on the internet, and the gesture would be much more powerful than burying all the prints out in the desert and pretending it never existed. Shame on everyone involved but most of all, shame on Sony. Because they've confirmed that they do not have the spine to stand up to these people, this story may still be closer to the beginning than the end.

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