Is Sony the victim in their decision to not release "The Interview"?

It was indeed the theaters that didn't want to take chances showing it. Sony can't force them to. And if enough theaters say don't bother, it can make a lot less sense to attempt a theater release. They are looking to do something like online or electronic distribution, but even sites like Netflix and Amazon are not yet biting. It's probably not worth it to them to risk some massive electronic attack on their own sites.

Yes, Sony may receive some financial support if this is viewed as a state-sponsored, national security thing. But that determination will be made independently of what they themselves say. And the U.S. is going to be trying to get North Korea to pay for what occurred directly.

I'd lay off of blaming Sony. Their main mistake is making the movie to begin with. If another country did some "comedy" about a couple guys trying to do an equivalent U.S. assassination, even including "real world" names and everything, it probably wouldn't be viewed as so funny in the U.S. They also knew enough to get approval of the U.S. government, I believe via the State Department, and they got the okay to go ahead. The Hollywood types need to be a bit more careful messing in politics, frankly, especially when they set out #1 to mock the assassination of current leaders of other countries.

Anyway, I think Sony should distribute still. It just may make sense for this to be the first major movie distributed "for free" via something like torrents, supported by ads. Will they likely have another hacking for that? Sure. But that's what they should do, even if the U.S. government needs to back them up some more. And they can prepare for a fresh hacking, and trace it even further.

no, this smells of a publicity stunt to get their crap film in the head lines