SANTA MONICA, Calif. — VOD provider SkweezMe.com has reached out to Sony Pictures with the hope that the studio will allow it to stream the recently pulled film “The Interview.”
The controversial movie was yanked from theaters after a major cyber attack on Sony and subsequent threats to the public, reportedly from North Korea.
“SkweezMe.com is seeking the rights to digitally distribute 'The Interview' on our global online platform,” a SkweezMe.com pokesperson said. “Our streaming service is deployed on one of the largest servers in the world and can be accessed by anyone, anywhere. We firmly believe in freedom of artistic expression and freedom of speech and we will not be bullied into silence on our own soil because of these impeding threats.
“We will gladly take ‘The Interview’ and stream it online via our rev-share model so Sony can try to recoup its investment, but more importantly, to show the world that we will not have our constitutional rights silenced. For decades pornographers have fought our own government and been the canaries in the First Amendment coalmines. Pulling ‘The Interview’ is the first step in a very slippery slope of censorship and we are willing to step up and offer the movie to prevent American commerce and artistic expression to be silenced by a dictator 6500 miles away. ”
SkweezMe.com noted that it operates a Netflix/iTunes hybrid model in which users purchase tokens to its platform for 99 cents. Each token unlocks a 24-hour streaming service. There are no recurring monthly memberships. Users only pay for the days that they use the service.
The platform now hosts content from more than 70 different production companies and encompasses numerous adult genres, according to the company.