Four people have been arrested in Mumbai in connection with the theft of a Season 7 Game of Thrones episode, according to a new report by Variety.
Earlier this month, the episode in question was leaked to streaming sites before it’s premiere on HBO. Police in India have now arrested and charged four individuals, all of whom work for or used to work for Prime Focus Technologies, an outside data-management company used by Star India – HBO’s pay-TV distribution partner in the country. Star India’s watermark appeared throughout the pirated copy.
The four people who weren’t identified have been charged with criminal breach of trust and computer-related offenses. Variety reports that links to episode initially appeared on Reddit on August 4th, two days before the episode’s premiere. The Reddit post was removed shortly after it went up, but the episode was ripped in low quality and began it’s circulation on illegal streaming sites.
Star India released a statement stating that this is the first leak of this sort in the company’s history. “We believe that valuable intellectual property is a critical part of the development of the creative industry and strict enforcement of the law is essential to protecting it,” the company added.
The leak followed reports that HBO had been hacked and several TV episodes and written material connected to Game of Thrones had been stolen. While that theft is not connected to these arrests the four suspects are being held, under investigation, until August 21.
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