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Would Sony Pictures Entertainment have a legal basis to stop news media from publishing stories about company secrets unearthed in the giant hacking scandal?

As WSJ reported, Sonys lawyer, David Boies, sent a letter Sunday to media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and Bloomberg News, warning them not to publish or use anything discovered in the trove of internal files stolen in last months Sony cyberattack and leaked online.

The effort by Sony to keep a lid on the hacked documents has renewed First Amendment questions over the legality of publishing information stolen by hackers. Legal experts say Sony and Mr. Boies probably wouldnt get very far in court if the company followed through with a lawsuit.

It would be very hard for Sony to block media outlets from publishing most anything thats in the public interest, University of Minnesota Law School professor William McGeveran, who specializes in information law and data privacy, told Law Blog. And courts, he said, are quite deferential to the established media and its judgment about whats newsworthy.

UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, over at the Washington Posts Volokh Conspiracy blog, also says that Sony most likely wouldnt have a legal leg to stand on.Thats true, he said, at least as to most of the information that media outlets would want to publish.

He and Mr. McGeveran point to two key legal precedents.

The first is Bartnicki v. Vopper, a Supreme Court case from 2001. The high court ruled 6-3 in favor of a radio broadcaster that aired a cellphone conversation between a teachers union president and a top union negotiator that someone else had recorded illegally. In this situation, in which the station played no part in the illegal interception, First Amendment interests trumped privacy concerns.

A strangers illegal conduct does not suffice to remove the First Amendment shield from speech about a matter of public concern, wrote then-Justice John Paul Stevens for the majority.

The other case is a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling from 1969 involving a lawsuit filed by then-U.S. Sen. Thomas J. Dodd against two investigative reporters, Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, over articles they published based on leaked documents that ex-staffers had purloined from the Connecticut lawmakers office.

When information is on a matter of public concern, the court held, the fact that it was illegally leaked doesnt make publishing it an invasion of privacy, writes Mr. Volokh, summing up the decision.

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Sonys Legal Threats in Hacking Scandal Face First Amendment Hurdle

Hillary Clinton is suggesting that President Barack Obamas 2008 campaign team wanted her to attack Sarah Palin for being a woman when the former vice-presidential candidate was first named John McCains running mate.

The day she was nominated, the Obama campaign did contact me and asked me if I would attack her. I said, 'Attack her for what? For being a woman? Attack her for being on a ticket that's trying to draw attention? There'll be plenty of time to do what I think we should do in politics, which is draw distinctions,' Clinton told NBC News Cynthia McFadden in an interview set to air on Tuesdays NBC Nightly News, which was previewed on that mornings edition of NBCs Today.

Clinton made similar remarks on Tuesdays Good Morning America, where she sat down for an interview with Robin Roberts.

The former (and potentially future) presidential candidate confirmed to GMA that she was asked by the Obama campaign to go out and criticize Palin the day she was selected as McCains running mate.

I said, No, lets wait until we know where she stands. I dont know anything about her, do you know anything about her? And nobody of course did, Clinton recalled. "I think its fair to say, I made it clear Im not going to attack somebody for being a woman or a man. Im going to try to look at the issues, where they stand, what their experience is, what they intend to do -- then thats fair game."

Clinton told McFadden that the White House had reviewed her newly released memoir, Hard Choices, before publication and didnt ask her to take anything out.

Clinton refers to the Palin incident in the book, writing, according to CBS News, "[The Obama camp] immediately issued a dismissive statement and reached out to me in hopes I would follow suit. But I wouldn't. I was not going to attack Palin just for being a woman appealing for support from other women. I didn't think it made political sense, and it didn't feel right. So I said no..."

Palin tweeted about Clintons book on Monday:

Watch Clinton's interviews with McFadden and Roberts below.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Hillary Clinton Suggests Obama Campaign Wanted Her to Attack Sarah Palin for Being a Woman (Video)

Hillary Clinton addressed a wide range of topics during her sit-down with Diane Sawyer, from international crises to presidential plans.

During the in-depth interview that aired on ABC'sprimetime special Hillary Clinton: Public and Private One on One with Diane Sawyer on Monday night, the former secretary of state discussed her timeline for deciding if she will run for president in 2016, the ongoing impact of the crisis in Benghazi, Libya, and Monica Lewinsky being back in the public eye.

Clinton admitted that the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woodsin Benghazi still weigh heavily on her heart.

"The hardest thing was to think about Sean Smith and Chris Stevens trapped," she said of the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in 2012.

VIDEO:Hillary Clinton Responds to Age, Health Jabs During Diane Sawyer Interview

"I would give anything on earth if this had not happened. I am also clear in my own mind that we had a system. I take that responsibility, but I was not making security decisions.And I certainly would wish that we had made some of the changes that came to our attention to make as a result of the investigation. But I also am clear in my own mind that we had a system, and that system, of course, ended with me," she said.

When asked if this is the "cost of doing business," she replied: "We have to be thoughtful about where we send peopleand how we keep them protected."

After two years and 13 hearings on the topic, the debate rages on, and there will be another investigation ofBenghazi and Clinton. She said she doesn't know yet whether she will testify, but when asked if the situation was a reason not to run for president, she said it was more of an incentive.

"Actually, it's more of a reason to run, because I do not believe our great country should be playing minor-league ball. We ought to be in the majors," she said. "I view this as really apart from -- even a diversion from -- the hard work that the Congress should be doing about the problems facing our country and the world."

VIDEO:Hillary Clinton Reveals Timetable for Making Decision About Presidential Run

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Hillary Clinton Tells Diane Sawyer That Benghazi Crisis is 'More Reason to Run' for President (Video)

By Maeve Reston, CNN

updated 1:36 PM EST, Mon December 15, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- As she positions herself for a potential presidential run in 2016, Hillary Clinton sought to shine her spotlight Monday on one of her longtime goals: narrowing the gender gap around the world through the use of data.

The former Secretary of State spoke briefly Monday at an event with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to give a progress report on their joint 2012 initiative known as "data2x" -- an effort intended to spark "a gender data revolution" -- which is a partnership of the Clinton Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the United Nations Foundation.

Clinton noted that her quest to improve the data about the status of women around the world stemmed from her years as Secretary of State when she would try to broach those topics with other world leaders, who would "smile and nod" but often not take the topic seriously.

"You can't understand what the problem is if you don't have a good grasp of what the facts and figures are," Clinton said. At the State Department, she learned, she said, that she could not rely solely on the moral argument that women's rights should be considered human rights.

Clinton said she wanted to use to data to build a case strong enough "to convince the skeptics, based on hard data and clear-eyed analysis, that creating opportunities for women and girls across the world directly supports everyone's security and prosperity, and therefore should be an enduring part of our diplomacy and development work."

"After all, good decisions in government, in business, in life, are based on evidence rather than ideology or gut feelings or anecdotes," Clinton said.

The former Secretary of State did not address other topics in the news Monday -- namely last week's release of a Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's use of torture as part of its interrogation practices during the presidency of George W. Bush. (President Obama banned the use of those techniques after taking office in 2009).

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Clinton: Fixing gender gap requires all the 'facts and figures'

Convicted murderer Charlie Ely refuses to answer questions based on fifth amendment rights during the third day of Amber Wright and her brother Kyle Hooper's first degree murder trial at the Marion County Judicial Center in Ocala, FL on Friday June 8, 2012. Wright and Hooper are accused in the brutal slaying of Wright's former boyfriend Seath Jackson in April 2011. The murder occurred at her trailer and she was convicted for her participation. (Alan Youngblood/Ocala Star-Banner)2012

As Michael Bargo's appeal remains pending before the Florida Supreme Court and Amber Wright's case ping-pongs between the trial and appellate courts, a third co-defendant Charlie Ely is trying to get some post-conviction relief of her own.

Ely recently filed a 45-page motion claiming her defense attorney was ineffective in handling her case. She said she is entitled to post-conviction relief in the form of a new trial.

Ely, now 22, was one of five young people charged with first-degree murder in the 2011 death of Seath Jackson, 15. She was found guilty on Sept. 23, 2011, and sentenced to life in prison.

In her motion, Ely, takes issue with her trial counsel's decision to take the case to trial only five months after the murder; failing to dismiss jurors from the panel who gave the appearance they couldn't be unbiased; failing to preserve objections for the appellate record and renew previous objections; and allowing certain incriminating evidence to come before the jury.

Ely argues that these mistakes constitute a violation of her civil rights. The cumulative effect of counsel's errors deprived the defendant of her right to a fair trial, Ely wrote in her motion. She is representing herself on appeal.

She argues that, had her attorney done things differently, perhaps her case's outcome would have been different.

Trial evidence showed Ely aided Wright's attempts to lure Seath to Ely's Summerfield home, where co-defendants Michael Bargo, Justin Soto and Kyle Hooper were. The men were accused of helping beat, shoot and burn his body in a backyard fire pit before placing the ashes in paint buckets and dumping them into a lake at the bottom of a lime rock quarry.

Ely was the first of five teen co-defendants to stand trial. Her attorney did not waive her right to a speedy trial, and therefore the state had to prosecute her within 90 days.

Ely argues that this move left her with a biased jury pool selected from a community still enraged over the highly publicized crime.

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Woman convicted in Seath Jackson murder seeks post-conviction relief