In a message sent to company executives, someone claiming to represent the hacker group calling itself the Guardians of Peace has given Sony Pictures Entertainment the go-ahead to release the film The Interview—with some minor caveats. First of all, they want any death scene for Kim Jong-un dropped from the film.

"This is GOP. You have suffered through enough threats," the message, which was also posted to Pastebin, read. "The interview may release now. But be careful. September 11 may happen again if you don't comply with the rules: Rule #1: no death scene of Kim Jong Un being too happy; Rule #2: do not test us again ; Rule #3: if you make anything else, we will be here ready to fight."

Sony dropped plans for the release of the film following the cancellation of screenings by major theater chains.

CNN had reported that an anonymous source at Sony had shared another email sent to executives contradictory to this message in private, instructing the company to ensure that The Interview "never be released, distributed, or leaked in any form of, for instance, DVD or piracy...and we want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately." CNN's source said that the message was in a similar format to previously received messages from the hackers. Sony Pictures would not comment on the CNN report.

It's entirely possible that one or both of these messages is simply someone posing as the hackers, simply for their own amusement or to cause additional damage to Sony. Or they could both be from the hackers, and the group is trying to put a different public face on their activities as the US government considers a "proportional response" to the Sony Pictures attack against North Korea.

Ars will update this story as more details become available.