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Apple Said to Have Declined Offer From Sony to Host 'The Interview' on iTunes

HenryDJP said:
Most, if not all of your posts are anti-Apple. I doubt that you'd watch the movie on iTunes anyway. :rolleyes:
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Earth to Henry,

It's not about Apple's profits, it's about freedom. If Apple prioriticizes profits over First Amendment rights, I rather join the Android universe.
 
Apple decides to not fast track a movie into iTunes suddenly for xmas somehow becomes. "Apple are spineless and terrified of North Korea." Or aren't going to show it because they're "concerned about what China might think."

Whaaat. Crazy. Why would China care what's in the US iTunes Store? They wouldn't. At all.

We came around to the idea that NK had nothing to do with the hacking. That always seemed suspect. Does anyone still think they did it? Nobody is running scared from NK. Apple probably have enough on their plate in the xmas run up without having to deal with Sony Pictures schizophrenic BS. "We're going to release.. No we're not.. Maybe we are.. No.. Yes we are.. RIGHT NOW!"

The interview will no doubt come to iTunes eventually, they just aren't giving it special treatment. Which is very standard Apple behaviour.
 
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MNJohn said:
Earth to Henry,

It's not about Apple's profits, it's about freedom. If Apple prioriticizes profits over First Amendment rights, I rather join the Android universe.
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Your First Amendment rights aren't involved in this situation. Your wanting Apple to host the movie does not equate to you having a constitutional right to dictate by law, that Apple do so.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
 
This has been a very entertaining thread. So many passionate people expressing themselves. Even the vitriolic towards either Sony or Apple has been amusing.

I'm somewhat out of the loop as I don't get any movies these days from iTune$ and thus any decision Apple makes doesn't impact me in the least with respect to this piece of property for show.

I'll just toss some thoughts out here which I am sure will be met with some ire.

1) Anyone that honestly thinks Sony faked the hacking hasn't a clue in their head. I would use harsher more insulting language but not interested in getting in trouble here.
2) The film is both property and the fuzzy line of "art" that might be considered a form of expression. People need to distinguish between the two with respect to Sony's option to release or not release. Hint - holding back at least temporarily is a matter of damage control both financially and in terms of P.R. and not with standing the implications that more data stolen could be released to the public. The latter is Sony's choice as to whether to release and take the risk or not.
3) Apple certainly can choose not to involve it self in this quagmire and considering the film may not be a draw other than the present notoriety it simply might not be worth the hassle.
4) Hackers come in all varieties from very blunt tools to highly sophisticated. Until more is released to the public other than the surface info that parallels attacks done before by N.K., people should not assume that Sony was not meeting at least Sorbanes Oxley level of security compliance. What is amusing is that pretty much any large corp makes it abundantly clear that all emails are the sole property of the company and not the company employee. This type of ownership has its own set of legal ramifications.
5) Sony is twice the victim - for being hacked and then being maligned by the Feds right from the top. Sony was already in communication with the Feds and for the top dog to say Sony should have come to him is truly pathetic. If the top dog considers this cyber terrorism or a crime on the state level, then it should be in reverse where the top dog contacts Sony to get cooperation and suggest specific course of action.

Well those are just five thoughts for some here to disagree with and comment. Enjoy.
 
Film is out now, officially or not. Noone cares, Sony - sort your crappy (in)security out - you're a boat of fail.
 
just finished watching it on AppleTV, but not via Apple but via YouTube but get this it wouldn't allow to play the video via AirPlay from any of my devices and even on AppleTV via the youtube app it showed it as purchased but when I tried playing it just complained it wasn't appropriate for all audiences and wouldn't play it even though I paid for it on the web. In the end I had to install AirParrot on my iMac and play it via Safari and stream it that way. What a heap of crappy experience cobbled together by both Apple & Google. I'm not sure how any non-tech people get this stuff to actually work.

Is it a coincidence the latest iPad Mini only Airplays audio and not video as well as the iMac 2009 (with yosemite) doesn't support Airplay at all but does if you install AirParrot (artificially crippled)? And then even on the iPhone via safari it does not let you play youtube videos if Airplay is enabled. Yet on AppleTv YouTube doesn't let you play purchased content if 'it may be inappropriate for all audiences' even though it let you buy the movie and will play via web. Is like no matter what you do you can't win.

In the end the movie was complete junk. It seemed more like Sony was leveraging the publicity to try and make this a box office hit when otherwise it would have sold maybe a dozen tickets. Terrible movie. Almost feels like the whole drama leading up to the release was somehow staged. It would have been a complete box office failure were it not for the media buzz.
 
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Thunderbird said:
I just saw the actual movie. It's very funny. On paper, you wouldn't think Franco and Rogen would work, but they have great chemistry. This is going to be a hit.
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SchneiderMan said:
I just watched it. It was actually pretty damn funny. Franco was weirder than ever, but hey, I didn't expect it. It might even be as good as Pineapple Express.
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Yep... pretty funny. It was in the same vein as other Seth Rogen / James Franco movies; absurd comedies.

This isn't Oscar gold... nor was it meant to be. It's a silly, ridiculous, farcical comedy.

I was cracking up at the very beginning with Eminem.

CLEANING OUT HIS CLOSET: FINDS HIMSELF

:D
 
Michael Scrip said:
Yep... pretty funny. It was in the same vein as other Seth Rogen / James Franco movies; absurd comedies.

This isn't Oscar gold... nor was it meant to be. It's a silly, ridiculous, farcical comedy.

I was cracking up at the very beginning with Eminem.

CLEANING OUT HIS CLOSET: FINDS HIMSELF

:D
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Also loved the movie, so many great lines, if you like this kind of humor.
 
groovyd said:
just finished watching it on AppleTV, but not via Apple but via YouTube but get this it wouldn't allow to play the video via AirPlay from any of my devices and even on AppleTV via the youtube app it showed it as purchased but when I tried playing it just complained it wasn't appropriate for all audiences and wouldn't play it even though I paid for it on the web. In the end I had to install AirParrot on my iMac and play it via Safari and stream it that way. What a heap of crappy experience cobbled together by both Apple & Google. I'm not sure how any non-tech people get this stuff to actually work.

Is it a coincidence the latest iPad Mini only Airplays audio and not video as well as the iMac 2009 (with yosemite) doesn't support Airplay at all but does if you
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That is intentional. I just streamed it to my Chromecast since the DRM in movies from YouTube doesn't allow airplay at the moment. Worked perfectly.

Had a few chuckles, but in the end a pretty dumb movie lol.
 
I just watched it on apple tv worked perfectly streaming directly from Sony's
site they set up. Didn't have to give google a penny of my money!

To me its amazing how so many here form opinions without any credible facts!!
No wonder this country is so %#$ up. We have no Idea why Apple didn't stream the movie "today" It may have nothing to do with fear of hackers. Or others who speculate they are appeasing China.

The only thing we know for sure is we don't know!!! As the Tao says

"Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know.
 
I knew it wouldn't take long, there are illegal copies out in the torrent world right now for anyone to download, even Kim can get a copy if his counties internet is back on line.
 
Lancer said:
I knew it wouldn't take long, there are illegal copies out in the torrent world right now for anyone to download, even Kim can get a copy if his counties internet is back on line.
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Sony website fail. You could copy the url for the embedded video and paste it into the address bar. Then when it loaded up you could right click-save as. Such an amateur mistake. Hell, every embedded video site has figured out how to obfuscate the url to the actual video by now.
 
I am constantly amazed at how nasty Applefan posters here are towards just about any other company. What does this kind of religious arrogance say about the poor saps who somehow equate at least part of their own self worth with their adoration of anything Apple?

Humans, you are very strange.
 
Sol said:
At least they made the terrorists happy. It's great for the CEO to stand up for social justice and equality for homosexual people but when it comes to dealing with terrorists, Apple have proven themselves to be even more spineless than SONY.
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Ah ok. Terrorists equate to "homosexuals"? Ok....?!?!?!
 
A thought:

Some are railing against Apple for not serving up this movie. Some say it is a sign of weakness for Apple not to have The Interview on the iTunes Store, asserting that they're only interested in protecting their interests in China or wherever instead of the good ol' US of A.

However, shouldn't we really be taking a look at Sony here? Before this speculative story ("said to have";MacRumors) came out, Apple had nothing to do with this film. I don't think it's right to hold them accountable for someone else's product. It's Apple's store; they can sell whatever they want (and they do) and it's proved to be pretty successful for business and fruitful for consumers.

Also, BitTorrent offered Sony use of their Bundle service. They were the ONLY ones to pretty much come out in public and offer the use of their service to Sony. I think it could have been a unique fit: BitTorrent's model is access to all sorts of imaginable content, even content that could be considered dangerous, obscene, or politically offensive, etc. However, Sony NEVER acknowledged this offer and (interestingly enough) many credible news outlets still continued to claim that NO COMPANIES WHATSOEVER came forward to offer their distribution methods to Sony. If Sony really genuinely cared about the political message of this film, would they have exhausted every means necessary to distribute this movie? And like they couldn't have done it themselves.

It all comes down to money here. Every word Sony has spoken and every move they've made since this whole ordeal began has been a calculated measure to extract what little profit they could get left even though the theaters dumped the films. Where's the outrage for those theaters?

What a ridiculous response for such a sub-par movie. Streisand effect at 200%.
 
Sony should have turned this into an opportunity and "leaked" the movie "unofficially" of course, then the alleged terrorists have no more power.

Edit: I guess they did and good for them!
 
PBF said:
Bravo, Apple!

Filthy Sony!

Hypocritical Sony!

Racist Sony!
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Are you serious?!?!? Read "Escape from camp 14", "Nothing to Envy" or some other book about North Korea before you talk crap. North Korea is repulsive totalitarian state with human rights violations happening every second. So, try growing an actual brain or you can just shove your racist remarks and your fanboy attitude where the sun don't shine.
 
Okay, so I saw it on Youtube tonight in support of good old fashioned free speech, but I have to say, other then a few good chuckles the movie is sophomoric at best, and damn offensive at worst. The graphic violence and language is so incongruous to this holiday, that I have to wonder about Sony's leadership overall to have targeted Christmas as the original release date.

That's my personal opinion—as well as those who watched it with me.

I hated the idea that Sony would cave to the threats of the hackers, and that was a big reason I wanted to see it. That they decided to go ahead and stream the movie, I say bravo. But the movie itself doesn't do the world much good, even in terms of making people laugh.
 
Tankmaze said:
Meh. To my opinion Apple should take sony offer, with the publicity around this film,
it could very well made some good income for itunes.
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And Apple is an even BETTER target for hacking or terrorism. As Apple doesn't know the facts of the hacking /threats they gotta say no.
 
pmbooks said:
Okay, so I saw it on Youtube tonight in support of good old fashioned free speech, but I have to say, other then a few good chuckles the movie is sophomoric at best, and damn offensive at worst. The graphic violence and language is so incongruous to this holiday, that I have to wonder about Sony's leadership overall to have targeted Christmas as the original release date.

That's my personal opinion—as well as those who watched it with me.

I hated the idea that Sony would cave to the threats of the hackers, and that was a big reason I wanted to see it. That they decided to go ahead and stream the movie, I say bravo. But the movie itself doesn't do the world much good, even in terms of making people laugh.
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Offensive? To whom exactly? The North Korean regime who is being investigated for possible crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court?

The movie was over the top, but that really is the point. Just like those "sophomoric" moments really. I think it really matters if you like some of Seth Rogens other work. If you were a fan of films like This is the End, Pineapple Express, etc., then your going to really like this. If not, then you may not.

The film itself though seems to have succeeded in being funny while actually sending a message to the North Korean regime. It's amazing that they were able to make a movie the regime actually views as a threat, because in some ways, however implausible it may seem, I think it could actually have some sort of long term impact if it were actually to make it inside the country and be subject to widespread viewership (how likely that is I do not know although there have been other examples in the past of media being smuggled in). Having their eyes opened to exactly how the rest of the world views their leader through the lens of a major motion picture film is astonishing. So I saw bravo to the filmmakers, who actually made a really funny film about some of the worst mankind has to offer, and rubbing their face in it.
 
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