Obama Solds Sony for Cowing to Hackers: 'That's Not What America Is About'

​President Barack Obama chided Sony for making "a mistake" by pulling the release of the political comedy The Interview in response to demands by hackers.

"[Sony] suffered significant damage. There were threats against its employees. I am sympathetic for the concerns that they faced," the President said during the question period of his year-end press conference this afternoon. "Having said all that, I think they made a mistake.

"I wish they had spoken to me first."

By canceling the movie, which was set to be distributed in some 18,000 theaters across the US, Sony sent the wrong message to the hackers and to the American people, the President said.

"We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the united states, because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary they don't like," he said.

"Or worse, imagine if producers or distributors or others start engaging in self censorship because they don't want to offend the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities probably need to be offended. That's not who are. That's not what America is about."

The "somebody" implicated is North Korea, which the FBI said today was behind the hack that leaked the inboxes of top Sony executives and other data.

In one threat sent to Sony, hackers implied there would be September 11 style attack on theaters if the movie was released.

Even so, the President said capitulating to their demands was the wrong response.

"We can't start changing our patterns of behavior any more than we can't stop going to a football game because there might be a possibility of a terrorist attack," the President said today.

Reports from anonymous government sources implicated North Korea days ago, spurring hawks to call for a government response. Some, like Newt Gingrich, even called the hack an "act of war."

The US will respond to the attacks "proportionately, and… in a time and manner that we choose," the President said.

The President also made a firm call for bipartisan cooperation in congress to pass stronger cybersecurity laws.

Journalists, industry pundits, and members of the public have started calling for Sony to release the movie online. Today, the peer-to-peer filesharing company BitTorrent invited Sony to release the movie through its BitTorrent Bundle self-publishing platform. "BitTorrent Bundle is in fact the very best way for Sony to take back control of their film, to not acquiesce to terrorists threats, and to ensure a wide audience can view the film safely," the statement read.

Sony has "no discussions or plans at this time" to release the film online, Jean Guerin, a Sony media relations executive, told Motherboard earlier today before the press conference.

Sony CEO Michael Lynton, who was one of the executives whose emails were leaked, responded to the President in an interview with CNN. "We have not caved. We have not given in. We have preserved," he said.