The current to-do about Sony's weak knees is appropriate. Unfortunately, the distributors are also major villains. But, the attorney's for everyone in each step in the chain took one look at the infinitesimal possibility of a lawsuit or the greater likelihood of a deep hack of their own systems and pulled all plugs.
Everyone acts like this naked kowtowing to a maniacal and evil nation leader after a look at the company books (being hacked is both dangerous in a variety of ways and can be really expensive) is something new.
Obviously, they haven't read about how the German consul in Hollywood basically worked as an unofficial Hollywood film editor negotiating the portrayal of Germans (read German military and Nazis) in Hollywood films during the 1930s.
The German market was a big one, and all those Jewish film company executives sent sycophants to German to suck up to the Nazis, fired Jewish sales personnel in Germany, and removed the names of Jewish personnel from credits. To some degree, this self-imposed censorship spilled over into the entire industry and largely led to the disappearance of Jews and Jewish culture from films in the 30s.
Even as evidence of Nazi genocide grew, Hollywood ignored it on the big screen. In part, this resulted (bizarrely enough) from lobbying from some Jewish groups who were responding to the deeply isolationist rhetoric in some parts of America. These groups did not want American Jews blamed for trying to push the U.S. into war with Germany to save European Jews.
The story is much more complex and interesting than this post. So, along with everyone in Hollywood (especially those folks who thinks Hollywood didn't exist before they arrived) read THE COLLABORATION: HOLLYWOOD'S PACT WITH HITLER (2013) by BEN URWAND. It will open your eyes wide.