I do have to wonder what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot, if you had a high-profile, say, Chinese film about assassinating Obama, and have the film portray Obama as a complete joke.
Aside from the fact that every Fox News viewer would buy two copies of the collector's edition Blu-Ray, what would America do in response to the film company? We're not talking about merely lampooning a foreign leader, we're talking about making a comedy movie about assassinating a foreign leader. In diplomatic circles this sort of thing is beyond the pale on Sony's part.
That said, the appropriate response to such things in diplomatic circles is a strongly worded letter. However, given all the bridges they've burned with basically everyone (only a few timbers hold the metaphorical bridge even to China now), this is what North Korea has to resort to in order to make sure they're heard.
That leads the valid counterpoint that if a country has lost so much respect, and deservedly so, do they deserve the respect that other states would get in terms of not making a movie about assassinating their leader by name?
As for the outcomes, it's a mixed bag. Two wrongs don't necessarily make a right, but at the same time it's an ill wind that brings no good to anyone: the unearthing of Hollywood's secret Project Goliath, their attempt to revive SOPA via back-door deals at the state level, as well as a few other indiscretions in the organization, is certainly worthwhile, even if it in no way justifies North Korea's hack itself.
As for a response, it is a good "dry run" of sorts for this sort of thing, ultimately the target was not that big of a deal (unlike if they had attacked sensitive government databases or something), but it gives America a chance to have a dialogue about what appropriate responses to a major, nation-based cyberattack are. It hardly seems right to trade bombs for viruses, but then what can you do to retaliate proportionally? Not like North Korea has anything worth hacking.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
