It's been an interesting day for Kernel, the site powering Sony's digital rentals of The Interview in the US. Not only did it briefly buckle under the pressure of people hammering its site to watch the movie, but apparently it didn't do a great job in securing copies of the film, either. Those who spent $5.99 to watch a 48-hour rental of The Interview on their browser could simply share the URL of the film with anyone else. Worse yet, anyone who had access to the link was able to save an unprotected copy locally through a super obvious loophole, something The Verge was able to confirm from different browsers and locations.
"You guys need some serious DRM help."
https://twitter.com/expensivelooks/status/547846093036617729/photo/1
Kernel did not respond to a request for comment, but tweeted that it was "working on a fix as we speak," after the issue was pointed out.
Kernel was one of only a handful of places to get The Interview digitally, a day before its theatrical release in the US. The film became available today on YouTube Movies, Google Play, Xbox Video, as well as Sony's SeeTheInterview.com, which Kernel powers. The film's public debut was briefly canceled after Sony Pictures buckled to a hacker group that threatened violence for theatergoers and Sony employees, as well as leaking more documents. Sony did an about-face this week, rescheduling the release and adding today's video on demand release as an unexpected bonus.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/24/7448253/sonys-the-interview-site-accidentally-let-anyone-download
What do you think? Here's my opinion:
