Unreleased ‘Game Of Thrones’ Episode Reportedly Leaked Online Image courtesy of HBO
It’s not Sunday night yet, but fans of HBO’s Game of Thrones may have already seen the show’s upcoming episode floating around online: A new report says the fourth episode of the season was leaked just days after hackers claimed they’d stolen 1.5 terabytes of data from the network.
According to Entertainment Weekly, an HBO insider says the leaked episode was not related to this week’s cyber attack, however, in which hackers reportedly nabbed a script from the same installment of the popular show.
The reported leak came from one of HBO’s international network partners — Star India — which has access to the episodes before they air. A watermark on the video was apparently the giveaway clue.
We’ve reached out to HBO for comment on the reported leak, and will update this post if we hear back.
Update 6:29 p.m.: HBO confirmed to Consumerist that the leaked episode was not a part of the recent hack.
Star India issued the below statement on the incident:
“This confirms the compromise of episode 4 of Game of Thrones Season 7, earlier this afternoon. We take this breach very seriously and have immediately initiated forensic investigations at our and the technology partner’s end to swiftly determine the cause. This is a grave issue and we are taking appropriate legal remedial action.”
A familiar song of ice and fire and leaks
This is far from the first time HBO has had to deal with leaked GOT content: The Verge notes that the first four episodes of season 5 were also leaked online because of advance screeners sent to members of the press.
And then there was the HBO subsidiary that prematurely released an episode during season 6.
Though HBO finally stopped giving out screeners to the press for season 7, that doesn’t seem to have kept it safe from leaks in this case.
King of the pirates
GOT is one of the most pirated TV shows out there every year, and this season has lived up to that title. A report last month indicated that the season 7 premiere was pirated 90 million times in the days after it aired.
HBO has tried to combat pirates in recent years, launching new anti-piracy efforts last year that include sending copyright infringement warnings to ISPs, urging them to take action against alleged pirates.
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