In November of 2014, Sony Pictures Entertainment reported the hackers’ attack and leaking the private information regarding studio stars, private conversation, and unreleased films. In spite of the fact that the whole film The Interview produced by Sony Pictures was not released by hackers, the incident was characterized as a cyber crime.
It was associated with the planned release of The Interview scheduled on December 24, 2014 (Donnelly par. 2). The problem is in the film’s content because the film presents a story of the hypothetical killing of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The reaction of the North Korean authorities to the film production was negative.
Therefore, the further hackers’ threats to organize terrorist attacks in cinemas where The Interview would be released were associated with the activities of the North Korean authorities (“The Interview” par. 3). From this point, it is important to discuss the cases of The Interview and Sony Pictures hackers’ attacks in the context of the U.S. media law and compare the main aspects of the U.S. laws with the media law in the UAE to explain the U.S. authorities and public’s reactions to these incidents.
Sony Pictures’ Response to Hackers’ Attacks and The Interview Case
The hackers’ attacks on Sony Pictures led to significant financial losses for the company because of disrupting the plans regarding the release of several films. Focusing on the threats of terrorist attacks associated with releasing The Interview, Sony Pictures faced additional financial problems because the leading cinema chains in the USA rejected releasing the film. However, in spite of changing the initial plans regarding the film release, Sony Pictures chose to sell the film online and demonstrate it in small cinemas.
As a result, the strategy of the company resulted in the fact that The Interview became the leading Sony Pictures film sold online. The Internet promotion of the film and high sales became possible only with the focus on Barack Obama’s support in discussing the case of The Interview (Ruche par. 2).
Although there was no full financial recovery for the studio, the politicians and the public demonstrated the focus on the U.S. laws guaranteeing the freedom of expression in the media, protection from cyber invasions, and violation of copyright laws. In this context, President Obama proposed to revise the existing laws in the area of media to prevent further possible cyber attacks.
The other important issue to discuss is the invasion of privacy. As a result of the situation that Sony Pictures’ private documentation was leaked, many studio employees and actors became the victims of the invasion of privacy. The financial details of the work of Sony Pictures with such stars as Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lawrence became publicly available (Donnelly par. 3).
Although such cases are controlled according to the privacy protection acts in the USA and Sony Pictures prohibited publishing any private information regarding the company’s financial, strategic, and human resources data, the media actively published the data received from the cyber criminals, violating the legal norms in this case.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was referred to as the main source of legal norms in relation to the case. From this perspective, the existing U.S. media law is rather ineffective to protect citizens from the invasion of privacy.
The U.S. Government’s Reaction to The Interview
Barack Obama did not support the decision of Sony Pictures to change the release plans and sell the film online because such actions were considered as the concession to cyber criminals. Such claims were also supported by other authorities who stated that the film is a comedy, its content is satiric in its nature, and it does not intend to offend the views of the North Korean citizens (“The Interview” par. 4).
In this context, the main reference is to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and to the laws regulated the freedom of expression in the sphere of media coverage. From this perspective, the film was allowed and supported by the U.S. government because the existing media laws cannot be discussed as restrictive regarding the content of films produced by studios (Overbeck, Belmas, and Shepard 129). In this case, the censorship is rather limited in the United States, and it is related mainly to the cases of privacy invasion.
The U.S. Media Laws
The media industry in the United States develops basing on the legal regulations formulated as a result of reading certain cases in courts. The main acts that regulate the work with the information are the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the U.S. Video Privacy Protection Act. Furthermore, the media activities are also protected with references to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
According to the First Amendment, the censorship in the USA is prohibited, but the media companies are inclined to follow the self-censorship principles. These laws and regulations are directed to protect journalists and media representatives from violating the speech rights and citizens from violating their privacy (Overbeck, Belmas, and Shepard 134). In most cases, the media laws are inclined not to limit publishers, journalists, and authors in their rights to express freely, but to protect citizens from being abused by the published data.
Therefore, the production of The Interview as the film provoking the instability in foreign relations with North Korea could not be prohibited according to the First Amendment and the U.S. acts, but the actions to prevent the cyber crimes in relation to Sony Pictures were guaranteed.
The Comparison of the Media Laws in the USA and the United Arab Emirates
If the U.S. laws regulating the media can be discussed as based on the idea of freedom of speech and expression, the media laws in the UAE can be viewed as rather strict. Today, the media in the UAE is regulated with references to the copyright law, the publishing law, the telecommunications act, and the cyber-crime law.
In addition, it is typical for the UAE media to address certain criteria regarding the published and broadcasted content. In spite of the fact that the freedom of expression is guaranteed in the UAE, the laws prohibit promoting the information that is not correlated with the public’s cultural expectations (Duffy “Arab Media Regulations” 4). According to these regulations, journalists in the UAE should focus on the content of their messages in order to avoid violating the privacy or religious and cultural visions.
Comparing the legal principles in the UAE with those ones applied to the media industry in the United States, it is important to identify two main differences in these countries’ legal approaches. First, the U.S. laws prohibit any type of censorship except self-censorship. Focusing on the fact that the media content in the UAE should be checked according to certain criteria, it is possible to state that there is censorship of a certain type in the country.
Second, the U.S. media representatives operate the First Amendment while speaking about the freedom of expression. In the UAE, the freedom of expression is rather limited with certain legal and ethical norms (Duffy Revised Media Law par. 6). From this point, the situation of producing the film with the content similar to The Interview is more typical for the U.S. environment than for the Emirati one.
However, it is important to state that both countries strictly regulate the cases of cyber crimes and invasion of privacy. Therefore, the governments of both countries work to develop more laws in order to control the sphere of media and electronic communication. In this context, the United States and the United Arab Emirates have equal chances to improve the media legislation base and to address frequent cases of hackers’ attacks and cyber crimes.
Conclusion
The case associated with releasing The Interview in the North America provoked political debates, social discussions, and the legal discourse related to the necessity of improving media laws currently followed in the United States. Hackers attacks at Sony Pictures stimulated the active discussion of the new cyber crime laws. The leaks of the private information made the authorities speak about the necessity of improving the privacy regulations.
In addition, the international reaction to the film provoked discussing the aspects of the freedom of expression in the United States. The comparison of the U.S. legal base with the media laws in the UAE indicates the areas for revisions. Referring to all these data, it is possible to state that the existing media laws and regulations should be improved in order to prevent the further cyber crimes and international, as well as intercultural, controversies.
Works Cited
Donnelly, Matt. Sony Hackers Have Flashed A ‘Disturbing’ New Warning On Staff Computers. 2014. Web.
Duffy, Matt. “Arab Media Regulations: Identifying Restraints on Freedom of the Press in the Laws of Six Arabian Peninsula Countries.” Berkeley Journal of Middle East and Islamic Law 6.2 (2014): 1-15. Print.
—. Revised Media Law for the UAE. 2012. Web.
Overbeck, Wayne, Genelle Belmas, and Jason Shepard. Major Principles of Media Law, 2016. New York: Cengage Learning, 2015. Print.
Ruche, Dominic. The Interview Revenge Hack Cost Sony just $15m. Web.
The Interview: A guide to the Cyber Attack on Hollywood. 2014. Web.