I agree that the U.S looks weak during this whole thing but how is this an issue of freedom of speech? A company chose to pull its product due to a threat, the government didn't force them to pull it or anything, it's their own choice. If you publish a controversial book and get threatened because of it and choose to pull it, it's not a freedom of speech issue because you are pulling your own book (or not pulling it).

Right, the US government didn't force them. But possibly another government did. If the US government was the perpetrator of this, I'd bet it would be in flagrant violation of the 1st

>possibly another government did

That's just perfect way to put it! Possibly! Possibly aliens from Alpha-Centauri did. Or possibly they didn't.

After comments like this it really starts to look like pretty successful excuse to start a war or something and completely made-up topic overall.

US isn't powerless, it's just a matter of the will to act. If everyone agreed that NK should be destroyed (such would be the case if they were stupid enough to launch a nuclear attack against someone, for example), it would be. Hacking Sony doesn't reach that level of retaliation.

The free speech angle always seemed like a stretch. Isn't Sony free to release or not release movies as they see fit?

And Hollywood could have pulled the prediction of Casablanca to avoid upsetting Germany and the pro Nazi german americans - and there was serious pressure put on Hollywood to do this.

source? Casablanca was produced in 1942 and released in 1943

the book describing the making of Casablanca is quite explicit about the pressures the appeasers and American Nazis put on Hollywood.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Making-Casablanca-Bogart-Bergman...

Such pressures may have existed in the late 30's, but I don't see how there could have been any pressure to "pull production" of Casablanca for the sake of not offending Nazi germany given that its production was well after the US had entered the war. As far as I can tell Warner Brothers had only first heard of the script by January 1942.

It's not a 1st amendment issue, but it is a free speech issue. Sony (and the theaters) were coerced by threats of violence.

And now they're being coerced the other way by the President of the United States. Why is that different?