Sony’s most controversial comedy ‘The Interview’ which was previously pulled out by the company has now been released on Christmas.
The Interview featuring James Franco and Seth Rogen is a fictional comedy based on a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The film has been under-threat from a cyber-group, known as Guardians of Peace. After receiving a number of threats from the group about the conduct of a terrorist attack, Sony initially cancelled its pre-planned Christmas day release.
After a number of critics got down to it and described it as a violation of freedom of speech, including the American president who called it ‘A Mistake’, Sony decided to give the movie a limited release within US.
The matter to make the movie available online was also discussed by Sony with Google,
“Last Wednesday Sony began contacting a number of companies, including Google, to ask if we’d be able to make their movie The Interview available online,” says Mr. Drummond, Google’s top lawyer.
He further added, “After discussing all the issues, Sony and Google agreed that we could not sit on the sidelines and allow a handful of people to determine the limits of free speech in another country (however silly the content might be).”
The movie however was released in a few cinemas within US along with its official release on Youtube as well. According to a report on TorrentFreak, the movie after its official release had been downloaded for over 750,000 times, with most downloads from outside US.
Though illegally but the movie has now gone viral within many countries outside US as well. A move to not make the movie legally available in other countries is now seemed to be a less profitable one for Sony.
