索尼黑客事件佐證好萊塢衰敗

Hacking at Sony Over ‘The Interview’ Reveals Hollywood’s Failings, Too

索尼黑客事件佐證好萊塢衰敗

Kim Jong-un, who appears to be America’s newly self-appointed minister of culture, has decided that it is not enough that “The Interview,” the Seth Rogen film about North Korea that includes Mr. Kim’s assassination, will not be released. On Thursday, a message from the Guardians of Peace, the hacker group that breached the computer systems of Sony Pictures and warned against releasing the film, said “we want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately.”

金正恩最近似乎成了美國(guó)自封的文化部長(zhǎng)，他認(rèn)為塞斯·羅根(Seth Rogen)導(dǎo)演的關(guān)于北朝鮮、含有刺殺金正恩情節(jié)的電影《采訪(fǎng)》(The Interview)，不能上映還不夠。星期四，破壞索尼影業(yè)網(wǎng)絡(luò)系統(tǒng)，并警告該片不得上映的黑客組織“和平守衛(wèi)者”(Guardians of Peace)發(fā)來(lái)消息，稱(chēng)“我們希望和這部電影相關(guān)的一切，包括預(yù)告片和完整版都馬上從網(wǎng)絡(luò)上撤下”。

My, that slope became mighty slippery pretty quickly. The hackers promised that if Sony scrubbed all traces of the comedy from the Internet — an impossible task — they would cease a campaign that has lasted almost a month and has threatened employees and their families, embarrassed executives and potentially unleashed 100 terabytes of private company data into the world.

天哪，形式可真是急轉(zhuǎn)直下。黑客們宣稱(chēng)，如果索尼從網(wǎng)上抹掉這部喜劇的所有痕跡——一個(gè)不可能完成的任務(wù)——他們就會(huì)停止對(duì)該公司持續(xù)了一個(gè)月的攻擊，此外他們還威脅公司雇員和他們的家庭，令公司高管難堪，偷偷把相當(dāng)于100兆字節(jié)的公司秘密信息公之于眾。

Federal officials said Friday morning that they had extensive evidence that the North Korean government organized the attack. A few hours later, President Obama added his voice to the chorus of critics, including irate Hollywood actors, who say Sony and the nation’s theater operators should not have canceled the release. “We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States,” he said.

星期五上午，聯(lián)邦政府官員稱(chēng)，他們有足夠證據(jù)證明北朝鮮政府組織了這場(chǎng)攻擊。幾小時(shí)后，奧巴馬總統(tǒng)加入了批評(píng)的大合唱——盛怒的好萊塢演員紛紛指責(zé)索尼公司以及美國(guó)的院線(xiàn)老板們不應(yīng)當(dāng)取消放映這部電影。奧巴馬說(shuō)，“我們的社會(huì)不應(yīng)該讓某個(gè)地方的某個(gè)獨(dú)裁者對(duì)美國(guó)施加審查。”

It was a remarkable and disorienting turn of events: a tiny, failing state that lacks the wherewithal to feed its own people was deciding which movies we can and cannot see, while the industry it had attacked watched silently from the sidelines, and the president of the United States felt compelled to step into an international confrontation catalyzed by a lowbrow comedy.

這是非同尋常、令人迷惑的轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)：一個(gè)每況愈下的小國(guó)，連自己的人民都養(yǎng)不活，卻來(lái)決定我們能看什么、不能看什么，而它所攻擊的行業(yè)只是一言不發(fā)地旁觀，美國(guó)總統(tǒng)則認(rèn)為自己不得不卷入一場(chǎng)由一部粗俗喜劇引發(fā)的國(guó)際沖突。

After weeks of embarrassing disclosures from Sony’s hacked files, the endgame for the movie began on Tuesday, when the hackers invoked the devastation of September 11, and said that anyone who attended the opening on Christmas Day would be risking their lives. “We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time,” they wrote in a rambling email to news organizations.

自從文件被黑客公開(kāi)后，索尼公司經(jīng)歷了幾個(gè)星期的尷尬，如今這部電影即將迎來(lái)上映前的最后階段，然而，就在星期二，黑客卻提起911事件的災(zāi)難，聲稱(chēng)任何在圣誕節(jié)那天去參加首映的人都將有生命危險(xiǎn)。“我們建議你們?cè)谀莻€(gè)時(shí)候遠(yuǎn)離那些地方，”他們?cè)诮o新聞機(jī)構(gòu)的一封前言不搭后語(yǔ)的電子郵件中這樣寫(xiě)道。

Theater chains quickly let it be known that “The Interview” would not be screened. Sony, saying it had no choice, withdrew the movie. Certainly, there were concerns about public safety, but make no mistake, other considerations factored in the decision, all involving dollar signs: the box office receipts of films that would be playing alongside “The Interview” during one of the biggest movie weeks of the year, and the holiday shoppers at the retail chains that surround so many theaters. Major cable players made it clear that they were unwilling to step in with a video-on-demand alternative, so short of hanging a bedsheet and screening the movie at its Culver City headquarters, Sony was cornered.

電影院線(xiàn)很快公布，《采訪(fǎng)》將不會(huì)公映。索尼公司說(shuō)自己別無(wú)選擇，也撤下了這部電影。誠(chéng)然，這里有公共安全方面的考慮，但是別搞錯(cuò)，影響這個(gè)決定的還有其他因素，全都和金錢(qián)有關(guān)：比如在一年之中電影最賺錢(qián)的一個(gè)星期里，和《采訪(fǎng)》同期上映的其他電影票房收入，乃至諸多影院周?chē)痰曛械募偃召?gòu)物者都將受到影響。各大有線(xiàn)電視臺(tái)澄清他們不會(huì)播出《采訪(fǎng)》的視頻點(diǎn)播版，索尼別無(wú)選擇，只能將這部電影扼殺在搖籃，或者只在公司科爾瓦城總部偷偷放映它。

Once the film was successfully censored, you could count the days until other films were affected. Actually, it happened earlier in the same day, before “The Interview” was shelved, when New Regency announced that it would drop an untitled thriller about North Korea that was to have starred Steve Carell.

這部電影就這樣成功地被審查了，其他電影受到類(lèi)似影響也指日可待。其實(shí)，在《采訪(fǎng)》被宣告擱置的同一天早些時(shí)候，這種事已經(jīng)發(fā)生了——新攝政 (New Regency)公司宣布，它放棄拍攝一部與北朝鮮有關(guān)的驚悚片，該片原計(jì)劃由史蒂夫·卡瑞爾(Steve Carell)主演，尚未命名。

The threats and subsequent cancellation will become a nightmare with a very long tail. Now that cultural discourse has become the subject of online blackmail, it is hard to imagine where it will end. Documentaries, which have become increasingly important sources of news and information, could suddenly be in jeopardy. And if you’ve been watching the current season of “Homeland” on Showtime, you know that Pakistan’s more sinister operations have been on wide view.

這些黑客威脅乃至電影業(yè)內(nèi)的取消行為將成為長(zhǎng)著長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)尾巴的噩夢(mèng)。如今的文化話(huà)語(yǔ)(cultural discourse)已經(jīng)成了網(wǎng)絡(luò)勒索的主題，很難想象它將如何終結(jié)。紀(jì)錄片如今日益成為新聞與信息的重要來(lái)源，它們很可能突然陷入危險(xiǎn)境地。如果你看了這一季映時(shí)臺(tái)(Showtime)的《國(guó)土安全》(Homeland)，你就知道巴基斯坦很有可能采取更危險(xiǎn)的行動(dòng)。

This summer, HBO is planning to broadcast a comedy series starring Jack Black as a foreign service officer who takes on a rogue general who seizes control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Rogue states and their operatives could go after a Bond movie because they didn’t like its taste in villains. (The script for the next installment was released as part of the intrusion, by the way.)

今年夏天，HBO臺(tái)計(jì)劃播出一部系列喜劇，由杰克·布萊克(Jack Black)飾演一個(gè)外國(guó)軍官，他惹怒了一個(gè)掌控巴基斯坦核武庫(kù)的流氓將軍。流氓國(guó)家及其官員們可能會(huì)因?yàn)樗麄儾幌矚g007電影中壞人的品位就譴責(zé)它(順便說(shuō)一句，該劇下一集的劇本作為黑客入侵的一部分而被公之于眾)。

And it doesn’t end with the entertainment. Some news outlets, including The New York Times, have found themselves under sustained digital attack after publishing articles that displeased various groups that had the resources to respond with intrusions. Many state-sponsored actors will no doubt be emboldened by the spectacular success of the Sony breach.

這種事不會(huì)止于娛樂(lè)行業(yè)。一些新聞出版物，包括《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》在內(nèi)，在發(fā)布某些惹惱擁有黑客資源的群體的文章后，持續(xù)遭受到網(wǎng)絡(luò)攻擊。黑客在索尼一事上取得的巨大成功無(wú)疑會(huì)令不少由國(guó)家贊助的網(wǎng)絡(luò)攻擊參與者感到大受鼓勵(lì)。

Things have gone so deeply wrong so quickly — the movie industry will look back at this crossing of the Rubicon with a deep sense of shame — it is hard to keep track of all the mistakes that led us here, but I’d like to take a crack at it.

形式就這樣飛速惡化——在未來(lái)，電影業(yè)回顧這個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)之際，將會(huì)感到深深的羞愧——想追溯我們是怎樣犯下各種錯(cuò)誤，走到今天這步田地，這是一件難事，不過(guò)我愿意開(kāi)個(gè)頭。

Sony I happened to be with Howard Stringer, then chief executive of Sony, during a vast security attack on its PlayStation platform in 2011 — he looked as if he had been living inside a beehive for three days. That Sony did not harden as a target in a meaningful way afterward is inexplicable.

索尼：2011年，索尼的PlayStation平臺(tái)受到大型安全攻擊，當(dāng)時(shí)我正好和索尼當(dāng)時(shí)的首席執(zhí)行官霍華德·斯特林格(Howard Stringer)在一起，他的樣子看上去好像在馬蜂窩里呆了三天。在這以后，作為靶子的索尼表現(xiàn)得并不強(qiáng)硬，這一點(diǎn)令人非常難以理解。

And while I am all for bold creative choices, was it really important that the head being blown up in a comedy about bungling assassins be that of an actual sitting ruler of a sovereign state? If you want to satirize a lawless leader, there are plenty of ways to skin that cat, as Charlie Chaplin demonstrated with “The Great Dictator,” which skewered Hitler in everything but name.

此外，雖然我全心支持大膽的創(chuàng)意選擇，但這是一部喜劇，講的是拙劣地謀殺某個(gè)主權(quán)國(guó)家的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，這個(gè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人是真實(shí)存在的，在片中爆掉他的腦袋就真的那么重要嗎?如果你想諷刺某個(gè)無(wú)法無(wú)天的領(lǐng)袖，要干這件事有很多辦法，比如查理·卓別林(Charlie Chaplin)的《大獨(dú)裁者》(The Great Dictator)，從各方面諷刺了希特勒，只是沒(méi)有指名道姓。

Hollywood If you are looking for courage on the lots of Hollywood, probably best to pack a lunch. Other studios were content to watch Sony dangle, saying nothing for fear that they, too, would end up on the Guardians of Peace’s naughty list. The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the film industry, went into witness protection when the crisis erupted, with a spokeswoman telling Deadline, a trade website, on Dec. 11, “We have no comment at this time. We are not involved.” The association condemned the attack only once the devastation was writ.

好萊塢：如果你想在好萊塢的人們身上找到勇氣，還是歇菜吧。許多制片公司都滿(mǎn)足于觀望索尼的猶豫不決，自己卻什么也不說(shuō)，擔(dān)心自己最后也會(huì)上“和平守衛(wèi)者”的黑名單。當(dāng)危機(jī)發(fā)生時(shí)，代表電影業(yè)的美國(guó)電影協(xié)會(huì)仿佛進(jìn)入了證人保護(hù)計(jì)劃，12月11日，它的一位發(fā)言人對(duì)商業(yè)網(wǎng)站“截稿日”(Deadline)說(shuō)，“目前我們無(wú)可奉告，我們沒(méi)被卷入。”只有在損害很明顯時(shí)，該協(xié)會(huì)才譴責(zé)了黑客攻擊行為。

The breach of Sony would seem to be exactly the kind of moment when an association has real value, when it can collectively respond to a fundamental threat to the industry. The organization and the studios it represents hid instead. As my colleagues Brooks Barnes and Michael Cieply wrote, “The incident is likely to be remembered as a failure of Hollywood leadership.”

對(duì)索尼的攻擊或許應(yīng)當(dāng)被視為這個(gè)組織顯示其真正價(jià)值的時(shí)刻，它可以發(fā)表全體聲明，回應(yīng)對(duì)這個(gè)行業(yè)的基本威脅。然而這個(gè)組織，乃至它所代表的那些制片公司卻躲了起來(lái)。正如我的同事布魯克斯·巴尼斯(Brooks Barnes)和邁克爾·西普里(Michael Cieply)寫(xiě)的：“這件事很可能被視為好萊塢領(lǐng)袖地位的失敗。”

On Friday, George Clooney was even less polite about the widespread cowardice, telling Deadline Hollywood that when he circulated a petition of solidarity, he heard nothing but crickets in response. “As we watched one group be completely vilified, nobody stood up,” he said. When the novel “The Satanic Verses” was under attack, the book industry formed a united front. Exactly the opposite happened here.

星期五，喬治·克魯尼(George Clooney)對(duì)普遍的懦弱顯得更不客氣，他對(duì)“好萊塢截稿日”說(shuō)，自己在散布一封請(qǐng)?jiān)笗?shū)，要求大家團(tuán)結(jié)起來(lái)，卻沒(méi)有得到任何回音。“當(dāng)我們看著一個(gè)團(tuán)體遭到徹底中傷，卻沒(méi)有人站出來(lái)，”他說(shuō)。當(dāng)小說(shuō)《撒旦詩(shī)篇》(The Satanic Verses)遭到攻擊時(shí)，圖書(shū)行業(yè)組成了統(tǒng)一戰(zhàn)線(xiàn)。電影業(yè)發(fā)生的事卻正相反。

The News Media After the hackers absconded with personal and corporate information from Sony, they put the data on a site called Pastebin. Trade publications and some mainstream news outlets took the bait and spent a great deal of time rummaging through the stolen goods, and highlighting juicy emails meant to cause maximum embarrassment. What public purpose was served by printing private correspondence? We discovered that studio executives are capable of being callous, and that producers can be churlish when they don’t get what they want. As Aaron Sorkin pointed out, that’s not exactly new or important information.

新聞媒體：黑客竊取索尼公司的個(gè)人和公司信息后，把數(shù)據(jù)放在一個(gè)名叫“粘貼桶”(Pastebin)的網(wǎng)站上。業(yè)內(nèi)出版物和許多主流新聞出版物上了鉤，花費(fèi)大量時(shí)間去翻查這些偷竊而來(lái)的贓物，用大標(biāo)題報(bào)道這些意在盡可能造成尷尬的八卦郵件?？沁@些私人通信對(duì)公眾有任何意義嗎?我們只是發(fā)現(xiàn)，一旦達(dá)不到目的，制片公司的高管們可以非常鐵石心腸，制片人可以變得脾氣暴躁。正如亞倫·索金(Aaron Sorkin)指出的，這并不是什么新鮮或是重要的信息。

The data dump did reveal an industrywide effort to join forces against Google, but most of what was disclosed was intended to elicit clicks and smirks and the hackers knew enough to harness the base, competitive impulses of the press. News organizations mostly refrained from publishing material like passports and medical records, but in general, the news media served as last-mile delivery agents on information that was used to threaten Sony, the industry, and finally, the American public. The larger story about an unprecedented political attack on free speech took a back seat to titillating peeks at industry backbiting.

這些泄露出來(lái)的數(shù)據(jù)的確表明了，整個(gè)業(yè)界正在聯(lián)合起來(lái)努力向谷歌施加壓力，但最主要的內(nèi)容還是那些會(huì)引發(fā)竊笑和私語(yǔ)的東西，黑客們知道這一定會(huì)刺激媒體最基本的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)沖動(dòng)。新聞機(jī)構(gòu)強(qiáng)忍住沒(méi)有公開(kāi)那些護(hù)照和醫(yī)療紀(jì)錄之類(lèi)的內(nèi)容，但總的來(lái)說(shuō)，在信息方面，新聞媒體還是成了威脅索尼、整個(gè)行業(yè)，乃至美國(guó)公眾的最后一份力量。在宏觀范圍內(nèi)，媒體不是去關(guān)注對(duì)言論自由前所未有的政治攻擊，而是去偷窺業(yè)界的互相誹謗中傷。

The list goes on, including politicians who engaged in bombastic, warlike rhetoric, but let’s just say the last few weeks in the American political and cultural narrative have been miserable. The merits of “The Interview” can be debated, but fundamental business imperatives and civic freedoms are clearly in play.

這份名單還可以繼續(xù)列下去，包括那些熱衷發(fā)表空洞、好戰(zhàn)言論的政治家們，但讓我們只說(shuō)過(guò)去的幾個(gè)星期里，美國(guó)的政治與文化敘事都太糟糕了?！恫稍L(fǎng)》的價(jià)值有待商榷，但最基本的商業(yè)規(guī)則和公民自由顯然還是要尊重的。

So what is the right response? Americans are good at sitting on a couch and watching all kinds of stuff, so why not harness that impulse? David Boies, a lawyer for Sony, told “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the film would eventually be distributed. “How it’s going to be distributed, I don’t think anybody knows quite yet, but it’s going to be distributed.”

那么正確的回應(yīng)應(yīng)當(dāng)是什么樣的呢?美國(guó)人擅長(zhǎng)于坐在沙發(fā)里看著各種各樣的東西，所以為什么不利用這種力量呢?索尼公司的律師大衛(wèi)·博伊斯 (David Boies)在星期日接受“與媒體會(huì)面”采訪(fǎng)時(shí)說(shuō)，這部電影最終還是會(huì)發(fā)行的。“它將以怎樣的方式發(fā)行，目前還沒(méi)有人完全清楚，但最終它會(huì)發(fā)行的。”