Mr. Park wants to include “The Interview” on future balloon launches. But there is another way to make sure that the movie gets the giant audience that Kim fears, even in North Korea: Make it free.
Sony might fear retribution if it did this, but an alternative would be for the U.S. government to buy the movie rights from Sony and release it into the public domain. Anyone could then share the file online without violating copyright, burn it onto DVDs or even re-edit it to make new viral videos. Chinese netizens love to mock Kim, and North Koreans like to watch movies smuggled across the border from China. Perhaps the CIA could dub the movie into Korean to make sure it gets to its target audience.
Even if Washington had to pay the movie’s full production cost of $44 million, that would be money well spent. If the Kim regime is behind the Sony hack, it has won a cyberwar victory by inflicting heavy losses on the studio and causing it to compromise on freedom of expression. That could embolden Pyongyang to undertake more dangerous provocations. Washington should turn North Korea’s victory into an own-goal and show the West won’t bow to threats.
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