we encouraging you to head on over to our website. inside story, with ray swarez, is up next at the top of the hour. on al jazeera america did they just win the battle of the interview, it is "inside story." hello, i am ray swarez. press materials, professional interviews

premier and openings, sony's new comedy had all the normal droppings of a holiday release. there was bound to be one amateur critic who wasn't going to get a kick out of a buddy movie built around a c.i.a. plot to kill kim john-un. that would be kim john-un. embarrassing hacks and attacks followed up by threats of violence. has put them into limbo, press interviews canceled, movie chains announcing they won't screen the film. so far, the answer seems to be yes. >> take him out. >> you want us to kill the leader of north korea. >> in the movie, they are a talk show team recruited by the c.i.a., to kill north korean leader. >> hackers going by the

name the guardians of peace, or # gop. has stolen an estimated 1,000 territories bites from sony ranging from h.r. medical records of low level employees to salaries of star actors and actresses and i can't imagine how they are going to dig themselves out. the hackers demanded the movies release, be canceled all together. the world will be full of fear, remember the 11th of september 2001, we recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. but still a string of

major themes canceled their showings and on wednesday sony pulled the plug. >> studios by nature are very risk adverse, and so what the result of what has happened to sony is probably going to make a second or third or fourth look. that is controversial or sensitive to parties that have the ability to do something. >> the elite of hollywood lambasting the decision on social media. wow, everyone caved. the hackers won, and utter and complete victory for them. that seemed like a horrible precedent to set, and even documentary film maker chimed in dear sony hackers. now that you run hollywood, i'd also likeless romantic comedies, fewer michael bay movies and no more transformers. but the interview is not the first time the

reclusive nation of north korea, and it's leader were lampooned in hollywood. team america roasted then leader in puppet form. >> though north korea has not claimed responsible for the cyber attack, it's state run news agency has set broughted it as a righteous deed. if you have been watching this story, and shaking your head, wondering if the north korean hackers are about to muscle an american studio into not showing a film, think for a moment about doubt. about racele, about trying to figure out how to hand al peshmerga curious set of circumstances but it was unlikely he was going to kill patrons who ventured out to sea it. this goes in many directions.

if so what can they do about it can they be easily bullied. which coffers the business side of movies he published the website, the numbers. the film critic for the national post, and kathryn moon, korean studying. kathryn, let me start with you, do north koreans have the ability to make this kind of attack. as a tool of warfare, cyber warfare. >> north korea has been training and they are

approximately 6,000 or so, give or take, a few. cyber warriors who are well trained, they are human investments. they go to china and russia, to do additional studying. and then return to north korea to do the work. and they have attacked in a major way batchings, government offices, as well as atm machines, cell phones that wreaked havoc in 2013, 2014. and also the years prior to that. >> for a lot of casual on servers this story started with the controversial but in the conversations and the attention from the north koreans did it in fact start much earlier,dy they try to get this emore not made or not distributed long before we got to just a couple of days before the premier.

which is for americans we separate the private world of art and entertainment, from government activities. but for north korea, art, spainment, it is not an independent phenomenon. so there is no line between art, entertainment, propaganda, as well as loyalty. public loyalty to the state. once threats came into the people that would go see this movie to the movie houses where it would be shown, did sony have any choice and team

they punted to the individual theaters and chains, so i think it was sort of -- they kind of let that micro marketplace do the work, and once the major chains pulled out, then i think from what i can gather, sony felt like it just had to minimize it's losses. there have been controversial before. and see the film. more than a week before the premier, the whole thing just gets shut down. >> i know i and my colleagues spent all day just dumb struck at how quickly the events moved.

of course back during world war ii, there were a lot of hitler parodies, the charley chaplain film, when britain of course they were at war, so it was fine there were attacks unthoughters in france. that caused a great disturbance, and caused the film not to be shown there, that's the closest analogy and it is nowhere near the enormity of this. all the stuff that rolls out when a movie rolls out. but everything else involved in sony has value, their name, their trademark, their reputation. the other projects isn't eight complex calculation

to figure out how to proceed when you get to this point? yes, absolutely, i think that's a great point, and i think it involved to everybody involved here. that obviously a lot of information has already been divulged about sony employees and understandably they are upset about that, and worries about what may be to come. for the theater owners where they would consider themselves potentially next in line, if they released the film. weren't there a lot of other proprior tear bits of information, sensitive things. to future projects things that sony in normal circumstances just wouldn't have wanted anyone else to know? just not yet anyway? >> and we have seen and

was a massive investment for sony, and they are looking to -- control the messages around, they want to hide who they are going to be. they want to get fans excited and obviously, when the script of the film like that, goes on line. and is leaked. that completely can take away their marketing campaign. that might come to light about their relationship with particular stars, or internal communications in the company. >> you noted at the outset, that the way north koreans look at art, and it's place is very different from the way we do in the united states. we can also remember apart from talking them out of building a nuclear

weapons program, we don't really have much of a relationship at all with the north koreans. would any america intisty have much leverage of any kind in trying to find a more satisfactory outcome. >> this is an unfortunate situation, because i don't see how we could have prevented this kind of mess in a way. through negotiations or diplomatic channels because was don't have diplomatic channel channelh thedprk. the problem is that some have been finding out, through the emails that were leaked that sony has had options. earlier on. even as late as june. to make some choices in terms of the actual devastation to the leader should they blow him up, and have him melt down, how many burns should they put on him.

and there were negotiations between the directors, and the head of the company, head of sony, about these matters. i think what americans often don't understand about north korea, and this is the u.s. government as well as the public is that north korean state is theologysy. his father, and his grandfather, the founding father. they are the holy trinity, and so to knock down, literally, as well as figuratively any of these is to commit sack rah ledge. so for north koreans the leadership, in particular, this film even though it is a comedy, to us americas, this has been a very

serious matter. it has been very threatening to them, and they have called it an act of war. >> we will be back after a short break, when we return, a closer look at north korea, was the isolated police state capable of the hack attack, but now capable of more. are there fingerprints that indicate a hand behind the effort to bottle up the interview? stay with us.

that will take in response to this attack. that's homeland security secretary. nothing official, but u.s. government sources appointed to a north korean hand, behind the hacking of sony pictures. the evidence is circumstantial. and ann hornaday, you have been covering the movie business for a long time, the question of information and the way

something like a copy of a movie, could zip half way around the world before they even know it's been taken must be of constant worry to movie studios is and sony hack surprising from that regard? that it was so effort leslie accomplished that you could take territories bites of information all of their servingers? and just the fact that this is an industry that has become more and more globalized. more and more rehigh in the overseas market, especially in asia. >> so the fact that they weren't prepared on that level or this, they didn't game it out more carefully, or vet it, the project more carefully, i mean i gather that they are going to make some editorial changes to the film, four different

foreign markets, but they do seem to have been caught remarkably flat footed. and just in terms of best practicing. >> is there a little bit of looking over at the other guy and saying boy, it could have been me. >> i think inevitably, everybody is looking at their internal networks of security, and trying to figure out where the vulnerables lie. including agent the studios now, and thinking more carefully about some of the creative decisions. we have seen one film that had a north korean component, has gone back to the drawing board. looking at other films. and thinking well, how do we react to that as a

creative act. >> you have talked about looking at the properties that are currently in production. about these kind of things isn't that a problematic reaction to this? are we in a situation where someone half way around the world can just shut down art because they don't like it? does the movie business really want to concede to that kind of power? >> we were looking on -- and it is stilt unfolding. i think that's what is so breath taking and aarm laking. no one wants to be put in that position. there were so many safety issues. but yeah, you are right, i think this just raises

so many troubling questions about self-censorship. and when you think about what are the consequences going to be, we won't know, because we won't know what we won't see. eearn thely, optimistic, i think if main stream corporate studios become even more risk adverse than they are, there there will always be scrappy sort of showman, gorilla, makers and independent distributors who thrive on controversial, and never shy from a fight, so that some of these can see the light of day. >> can i differentiate between the advantaged lynch, the stealing, the internal communications and the threat against movie theaters and movie goers. are they two different things? are they two different things in the mind of the people that would make those threats?

>> well, first of all, ray, you had used the worth effort leslie. how they managed to hit the system, but the actual attacks were very complex the computer nasr with used they went haranged from computers in singapore, tiend la, poland, and to some other countries. it was a very complicated operation i think we do have to separate it from this more recent threat. i am very weary of laying blame on anyone at this point. real evidence that north korea did the attacks. and we don't have

evidence that they are the ones that made these threats. in preparing for today's conversation with you, i looked up some of the language the message, the theft message contained, and in my view, it doesn't sound that north korean, they have a way of making threats and this to me just didn't sound right. i stay open. it could be sony has mentioned back in november, there can be in house people that are disgruntled. it could be some other group of joyriders who are doing this kind of activity. so i think we should be cautious. and i do regret, very much, like ann and bruce, about sony's pulling the plug on this, i think that's very unfortunate. and we in america, we can laugh at people. very easily. and it is too bad.

we will be back with more inside story, when we return, another movie with a north korean connection has been shelved, nobody is showing the interview, and it looks for the moment like north korea is getting what it wants. what happens to the interview now? stay tuned.

[is there edge other way to get this movie out there, that at least has sony getting it in front of eyeballs and maybe making back some of that money. >> i think the obvious way forward would be to release this on video. and so do a dvd and blue ray release and put it on the video on demand platforms. i think there are some questions around that, that are you just moving the focus of the attacks from the movie needer. i think that is most likely the best way forward here. you can imagine a small release, but i think that that would only follow once we had a much better idea of who the attackers were, and what the circumstances were. i think that would

involve clearly a considerable delay. >> and i am tempted to on serve that you just can't buy publicity like this, it would be impossible. if you open up big theaters, they probably would be hanging from the rafters. in which case, i think the term of art is force majure. to qualify that are that they can't release it at all, but i think again this is still unholding almost minute by minute.

doing whatever the north korean equivalent of a high five is. >> that's a good question. maybe it is a salute to the picture of the holy trinity, the kims. again, we don't know for sure if it was north korea, as the source. but it's definitely great publicity for them. and i just want to say that a lot of americans. are making forward to this. we suspend politics when we watch. as an american it is just unfortunate. >> you were expressing the possibility that that might get seen. quickly before we go. my best wish is that sony would put it out on demand, and just as a great sort of gesture to everyone out there. that we can't be unbowed. >> from the washington

post, kathryn moon from the brookings institution, bruce nash from nash institution services, great to have you all with me, that brings us to the end of this edition, thank you for being with us, the program may be over, be uh the conversation continues. we want to hear what you think about the issues on this show, do you want to see the interview, would you go to a movie theater to see it. send us your thoughts on twitter, our handle a.j. inside story a.m., or reach me on follow me directly at ray swarez news. we will see you for the next inside story, in washington, i'm ray swarez. have kilted several of the toll military leaders we will have the latest. also our interview with former attorney general. in the bush

administration, he argued the legality of the c.i.a. interrogation program, that many called torture, and republican senator marko rubio says he will block any effort to send an ambassador to cuba, those stories and much more coming up tonight, at 6:00. >> we're following a funeral cortege procession through the outskirts of baltimore... kyndal staten was shot dead at his home in northeast baltimore. he was 27. today his family and friends are burying him.