I agree that this is probably good coverage for the movie, as I imagine many others like myself would never have even considered watching it, but now actually want to see it given the interesting context.

On the other hand, I still can't imagine they would be dumb enough to fake this, considering they opened an FBI investigation and there were threats of physical violence. The risk to reward just doesn't make any sense.

There's an old saying in PR: don't let your main distribution channel refuse to carry your product. Also, don't let anyone threaten your potential customers with death or terrorist attack!

There's a possibility that showing The Interview on YouTube and other sites will result in online streaming becoming a huge runaway revenue success. But that's a huge gamble to make, especially when the movie is scoring just a 54% on Rotten Tomatoes.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_interview_2014/