Sony is looking to sue Twitter and its users for “damaging” tweets

While Sony is still licking its post-hack wounds it’s going on the offensive about its leaked emails. Right now it looks like it’s going after Twitter and Twitter users. Vice’s tech site, Motherboard reports that it has in its possession a letter from Sony lawyer, David Boies sent to Twitter’s general counsel Vijaya Gadde. In it, Sony says it will hold Twitter responsible any loss or damage arising from tweets from accounts Twitter hasn’t banned.

Sony’s battle on people disseminating its hacked and leaked emails has extended from news outlets to random Twitter users to, now, Twitter itself. Sony’s lawyer has threatened Twitter with legal action if the social networking company doesn’t ban accounts that are sharing the leaks, according to emails obtained by Motherboard. The letter—sent from David Boies, the lawyer Sony has hired to help guide it through the aftermath of the hack, to Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s general counsel—says that if “stolen information continues to be disseminated by Twitter in any manner,” Sony will “hold Twitter responsible for any damage or loss arising from such use or dissemination by Twitter.” In the letter, Sony asked that Twitter share the legal threat with Val Broeksmit, a musician who has been posting screenshots of hacked Sony emails on Twitter. Broeksmit then forwarded the email to me. Twitter’s legal department told Broeksmit, who tweets from the account @bikinrobotarmy, that it “cannot provide legal advice. You may wish to contact your own attorney about this matter.”