Thank you, President Obama, for having some backbone on this issue. Kazi Hirai's, and by extension Sony's, cowardice is shameful.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/19/obama-sony_n_6354836.html

"We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States," Obama said. "If somebody's able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary they don't like, or news reports they don't like. Or even worse, imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in self-censorship because they don't want to offend the sensibilities of someone whose sensibilities probably need to be offended."

Sony is in a lose lose situation. If they went ahead and something did happen, people would blame them saying they had ample warning if something happening.

Fair play, KIm jung un needs a spankin'.

Whether Sony officially cancelled it or not, it wouldn't have mattered considering all major theatres already decided against showing it.

Easy to say when your not the one a risk.  

This.  But, I understand the theathers making the decision they did for safety concerns. 

I can't speak for other societies and who they would blame in such a scenario. But I think it's far more likely that the United States and its citizens, in such a situation, would direct its anger towards North Korea. In fact, it'd almost certainly mean the resumption of the Korean War.

This sucks for Sony.

I mean it is hard to blame them, they do not want more data to be released and at the same time there is really nothing they can do other than trying (like complying to the request) but nothing will guarantee those assholes (hackers) will stop. Also, they do not want more private data to be released to the public which force them to comply. It has nothing to with cowardice.

lose lose situation here :(

Talking about pot calling kettle black. Obama is the last person who should be chastising anyone about a lack of backbone.

Sony could have released the movie through other outlets and have still gotten a profit. But they cancelled the movie in its entirety.