Sony To Twitter: Stop User From Publishing Stolen Files Or We’ll Sue

From the letter sent by Sony’s lawyer to Twitter’s general counsel.

A week after Sony told reporters to stop doing their job of reporting on the contents stolen in the massive Sony data breach, the company is threatening to sue Twitter unless it stops users from sharing files that have been leaked.

In a letter obtained yesterday by Vice’s Motherboard blog, Sony legal eagle David Boies writes Twitter’s general counsel to highlight on particular Twitterer that Sony believes is violating the law.

The letter singles out the @bikinirobotarmy Twitter account that musician Val Broeksmit has used to share a number of pilfered documents with his several thousand followers.

Much like in the earlier letters to reporters, Boies contends that the stolen documents shared by Broeksmit contain information protected by copyright and attorney-client privilege.

“We are writing to confirm, as we believe Twitter is already well aware, that [SONY] does not consent to Twitter’s or any Twitter account holder’s possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading, or making any use of the Stolen Information,” reads the letter, “and to request your cooperation in suspending the Account Holder’s Twitter account and the account of any other user seeking to disseminate the Stolen Information via Twitter.”

The notice then goes on to demand that affected accounts be suspended and any offending copies of the documents be destroyed.

“If Twitter does not comply with this request, and the Stolen Information continues to be disseminated by Twitter in any manner, SPE will have no choice but to hold Twitter responsible for any damage or loss arising from such use or dissemination by Twitter,” threatens the letter, “including any damages or loss to SPE or others, and including, but not limited to, any loss of value of intellectual property and trade secrets resulting from Twitter’s actions.”

Meanwhile, Broeksmit’s account continues to be live on Twitter and still contains numerous documents from the Sony breach, including copies of e-mails showing that comedian Kevin Hart is paid millions of dollars to Tweet about Sony movies.