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Sony woes grow as 'Fury', 'Annie' screeners stolen, uploaded to torrenting sites
More bad news for entertainment giant Sony after several films from its subsidiary Sony Pictures entertainment were stolen and leaked online.
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OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images
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More bad news for entertainment giant Sony. After a week of rumors of network breaches comes news that several of its current and forthcoming film titles have been leaked to pirating sites.
"Fury," the recent release featuring Brad Pitt and the forthcoming musical comedy "Annie" were among the films found uploaded to torrenting sites. NBC News quotes piracy experts in estimating that "Fury" alone has been downloaded by over 888,000 unique IP addresses.
There were others, including not-yet-released features "Still Alice," "Mr. Turner" and "To Write Love On Her Arms." File-sharing news site "TorrentFreak" said the uploaded copies appeared to be watermarked with Sony's logo, a common practice with DVDs typically sent to award judges.
The hackers, calling themselves "Guardians of Peace," claim to have made off with a good deal more information in a threat posted on Sony's website Tuesday, after the breach. TorrentFreak reports the amount data that was stolen could extend far beyond film screeners:
Documents containing passport and visa information for cast and crew working on Sony movies, Outlook inboxes, documents detailing the company’s IT systems plus accounting and research information appear to be just the tip of what could be a gigantic data iceberg.
Sony has received several threats from North Korea over its upcoming film "The Interview." The Hollywood Reporter notes that that the attack and investigation
comes after a statement released Friday by a North Korean government-controlled website threatened the filmmakers of Sony's upcoming comedy The Interview with "stern punishment." The plot of the film centers on two guys, played by Seth Rogen and James Franco, who are sent to North Korea to assassinate leader Kim Jong Un.
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A representative from Sony was not available for comment Sunday.
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