If you can't seem to keep all the characters and storylines straight on 'Game of Thrones,' you can be forgiven for being confused about the leaks tied to the hit show too.
Four people accused of leaking an episode of the popular HBO series have been arrested in India, according to a report Monday by the AFP news agency.
- Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 4 “The Spoils Of War” has leaked online. The online streaming copies are being widely shared on the web and online forums like Reddit.
- The Indian organization has now issued a statement confirming the leak. “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.
Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 4 “The Spoils Of War” has leaked online. The online streaming copies are being widely shared on the web and online forums like Reddit.
Police told AFP the four were arrested for the unauthorized release of episode 4 of the current season, and are 'accused of criminal breach of trust and computer-related offenses.' The episode leaked from Star India, a company that distributes HBO programming there.
Star India said in a statement that the four people arrested were associated with its technology vendor, Prime Focus Technologies.
'This is the first time in the history of Star India that an incident of this nature has occurred,' the company said. 'We are deeply grateful to the police for their swift and prompt action.'
HBO didn't respond to a request for comment.
The arrests are unrelated to the cyberbreach that hit HBO in July. Since then, hackers have released scripts of 'Game of Thrones' in an effort to get the network to pay a ransom. Hackers on Sunday also reportedly leaked episodes of 'Insecure' and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' which is set to return to the network Oct. 1.
Update, 3:03 p.m. PT: Adds a statement from Star India on the arrests.
There are two ways to look at the news that HBO accidentally leaked the next episode of its hit show 'Game of Thrones,' airing it Wednesday on HBO Nordic and HBO España.
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First, there's the irony of the premium cable network accidentally throwing its own valuable episode out there early after hackers leaked emails and scripts and demanded a ransom to not leak more. It wasn't, in the end, the hackers who gave the episode away, it was HBO itself, or at least a vendor who worked with the company.
'We have learned that the upcoming episode of 'Game of Thrones' was accidentally posted for a brief time on the HBO Nordic and HBO España platforms,' HBO said in a statement. 'The error appears to have originated with a third-party vendor and the episode was removed as soon as it was recognized. This is not connected to the recent cyber incident at HBO in the US.'
If you've ever made a big embarrassing error at a job, you know there's a real person somewhere who hit the wrong button or typed in the wrong code and is either horrified or fired, or both. Think Cersei was enraged at Oleanna Tyrell? Somebody at HBO's vendor is wishing for that nice simple painless cup of poison about now. Jaime? Jaime?
And for those of us who can't be blamed for the goof, there's the temptation. Even if you'd never seek out and watch the leaked episode, do we look for spoilers from those who have?
They're out there, but writing as someone who's had to watch episodes early for years as a TV critic and editor, hold the door on that. It's much more fun to watch in tandem with a dedicated fanbase, reading the tweets and the Facebook posts and sharing in the inevitable outrage, delight (and sometimes confusion) as that one character you love is thrown into danger, but also that total creep comes closer to getting his or her comeuppance.
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