I was
asked a couple of questions regarding the hacking of Sony Pictures
Entertainment allegedly by North Korea. First, why was so little attention
being paid to the incident? Second, what did I make of President Obama’s
criticism of Sony? Mr. Obama had said
that Sony had “made a mistake” and “I wish [the Sony Pictures executives] had
spoken to me first. ... We cannot have a society in which some dictator
someplace can start imposing censorship.” The press conference itself was
entertainingly reported
here. The following are my answers, edited to fit the blog format.
1. I suspect that the hacking and the repercussions are being
given minimal attention in Japan because it is being
seen as a US incident affecting Sony's US business (Sony Pictures
Entertainment) and specifically its management and employees there, not much
different from, say, Warner Bros. getting hacked. The response would have been
greater if this had been a case of a major Japanese filmmaker being hacked. The
fact that it's a mix of crime (national news), business and cybersecurity
issues paying out overseas (albeit in the well-covered USA) likely makes it
that much more difficult to cover unless it's a big enough story to warrant
multiple-department cooperation.
2. I am somewhat hesitant to comment on President Obama’s
crfiticism because this is not much of a Japan story in the way that a Toyota
Motor North America story would be. (To reinforce the point that I made before,
Sony Pictures is an American company in an iconic American industry that just
happens to be owned by a well-known Japanese company, while Toyota is a global
brand that draws a significant portion of its cachet from its Japanese roots.)
President Obama’s reaction has even less to do with Japan, if such a thing is
possible, since it occurs within the context of a still largely US initiative
on cybersecurity. That said…
Blaming the theaters is a lame excuse that will
only be believed if Sony Pictures releases the movie online, as well as to
theaters that are willing to show it. But I get it. There’s a huge trove of proprietary
data that could be released, causing far greater damage to Sony Pictures than
the financial loss that it is eating, and Sony Pictures is a private-sector,
for-profit undertaking. And what could Obama have offered that would have made
the Sony Pictures executives change their minds? I wonder if he isn’t secretly
relieved that they didn’t talk to him.
This obviously compromises the entertainment
industry. Filmmakers will think twice before maltreating North Korean, Chinese
and Russian leaders and their ilk, touchy leaders of authoritarian/totalitarian
countries endowed with significant cyberwar capacities. But of course
self-censorship has always been a staple of the entertainment industry. It will
become even more obvious as businesses look increasingly to the global market.
Compared to the way the movie industry is beginning to accommodate Chinese
sensibilities for example, deep-sixing a film about which it has become
fashionable to make jokes regarding its supposed mediocrity is trivial. After
all, we will surely still have the Comedy
Central channel and Saturday Night
Live making fun of the fleshy leader of the hermit kingdom.
As a more general matter, as more and more
terabytes leak out to cyberspace to remain there forever and a day, I predict
that we will become desensitized, coarser, more shameless. Eventually, we will
all be Paris Hiltons, shrugging off indiscretions and embarrassments—indeed,
that word will become obsolete—as mere trifles, as conversations such as, “Did
you see the picture of the President’s dick,” “The ‘ladyfinger,’ you mean? Meh”
will become routine.
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