Sony threatens Twitter with legal action over posting of leaked documents
In a letter to Twitter's general counsel dated Dec. 22, attorney David Boies, representing Sony, requested that the site suspend the account of a Twitter user who has been posting documents and information leaked in the recent cyber attack.
The letter, posted by the Wall Street Journal, asserts that Sony "does not consent to Twitter's or any Twitter account holder's s possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading, or making any use of the Stolen Information." It calls out one account holder in particular, whose Twitter handle is @BikiniRobotArmy, for publishing leaked information, arguing that it is "pursuant to the perpetrators' scheme."
The person behind the account is Val Broeksmit, a London musician. He has posted screenshots of selectively redacted Sony emails about paying actors to tweet about movies, how much certain actors are paid, and miscellaneous insidery gossip and shoptalk.
Boies alleges in his letter that posting Sony documents breaks Twitter's own terms of use, as well as several California state and federal laws. He goes on to threaten to hold Twitter responsible for any damage or loss arising from the dissemination.
The charge echoes an earlier letter from Boies to a number of media outlets asking journalists to stop publishing details from leaked emails and documents. That one also threatened legal action.
Media companies are able to report on stolen documents as long as they were not complicit in the illegal activities used to attain them.
A Twitter spokesperson confirmed that the company received a letter from Sony and "forwarded it to one user."