'The Interview' Is Out - What's Next For Free Speech?

Sony Corp (ADR) SNE was thought to have dealt a major blow to free speech when it pulled "The Interview" ahead of its release. The company's entertainment division, Sony Pictures Entertainment, eventually caved and released the film on Christmas Day.

Seth Rogen was among the film's stars who tweeted their praise for Sony's reversal.

Is this a win for Rogen and Sony? Last Thursday, "The Interview" raked in $1 million from 331 indie theaters across the country, some of which had less than 200 seats to spare. The film's four-day total was less than $3 million, but "The Interview" grossed $15 million online a -- a new record for the industry.

Sony is still not expected to profit from "The Interview" -- the film had a budget of about $44 million. Even if it does, one question remains: what does the future hold for free speech?

Speech Isn't Free Anymore - For Sony

Sean Udall, CIO of Quantum Trading Strategies and author of The TechStrat Report, was pretty surprised by Sony's initial decision to pull the film but said it was "amazing" to see it appear on YouTube and other online video sites.

"I think Sony made a huge mistake," Udall told Benzinga. "At least they ended up doing the right thing. But they did show that as a company they will initially cave."

And that could be a huge problem for Sony.

"The fact that they showed they will initially cave, I think it increases the odds that they might be hacked again in the future," said Udall. "I think it was a bad decision."

The Door Wasn't Locked

Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, didn't think Sony was properly prepared.

"Doing a movie about killing a crazy guy that runs a nation that has nuclear weapons probably isn't the most brilliant thing in the world to do," Enderle told Benzinga. He was surprised Sony didn't put in place some protections around its people and its intellectual property.

"Penetrating a company, getting as much data as they did without getting caught, made it look like Sony went out and mooned North Korea and didn't even lock their front door," Enderle added. "They looked incredibly incompetent given the fact that they should have been aware of the fact that North Korea was going to respond."

'A New Phase'

Tech industry expert and analyst Jeff Kagan thinks the world is entering "a new phase of technology terrorists."

"We've been talking about this for years -- about the threat of governments [attacking] other governments online," Kagan told Benzinga. "They are firing a shot without firing a missile -- taking down the electrical system, taking down the water system, taking down the Internet and leaving the victim country in the dark for months or even years."

Kagan theorized that there would be "death" and "chaos" if those things were taken out.

"This is the first shot in that battle," he said. "Anytime you see a first shot you have to realize [that] there's going to be more shots. I have a feeling that this is going to continue to escalate not just between America and North Korea, not just between Sony and North Korea, and not just between individual countries and individual companies. This is going to continue to expand."

For better or worse, Kagan doesn't think the damaged party can -- or will -- sit back and do nothing.

"If one person slaps the other, they can't just turn the other cheek," he added. "They have to slap back harder. All that happens is it escalates…until it's out of control. It's not out of control yet, but this is the first slap in the face. I have a feeling it's going to keep on getting worse…and that's scary."

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.

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