When hackers first released buckets of internal data out of Sony Pictures late last year, the company’s legal wing tried to scare both journalists and normal people away from the story. It didn’t work (unless you were an employee of the New York Times). Now Sony’s at it again, this time with the insane claim that looking at WikiLeaks threatens the First Amendment.

The Hollywood Reporter says that they, along with several other outlets, received a letter from Sony counsel David Boies the day after WikiLeaks opened its searchable Sony portal. In the letter, Sony makes an insanely convoluted and warped moral argument:

“Despite its purported commitment to free expression, WikiLeaks’ conduct rewards a totalitarian regime seeking to silence dissident speech, and imposes disincentives on entities such as SPE who depend on trade secrets, confidential information, and protection of intellectual property to exercise their First Amendment rights every day.”

The regime in question is North Korea which, as you may remember, was blamed for the hack despite the absence of any evidence. What I think Sony is trying to say here is that spreading or talking about the hacked material is somehow undermining our First Amendment rights, rather than exercising them. Which is very wrong and so dumb.

“SPE therefore again asks for your help in protecting the First Amendment and declining to exploit the Stolen Information,” the letter continues, hilariously. What better way to protect free speech than by shutting up? Sony concludes by demanding that everyone “take all reasonable actions to prevent your company and any of your employees, contractors, agents, consultants, or anyone who may have access to your files from examining, copying, disseminating, distributing, publishing, downloading, uploading, or making any other use of” its leaked data. What is this, North Korea?

For full and continuing coverage of the hack, go here. You can read the Sony letter in full below.

Legal letter images via TechDirt
Top photo via Getty

Contact the author at biddle@gawker.com.
Public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: E93A 40D1 FA38 4B2B 1477 C855 3DEA F030 F340 E2C7