Updated at 4.50pm
A HACKER CLAIMS to have stolen and released the upcoming season of Netflix’s hit series Orange Is The New Black.
The hacker, operating under the name The Dark Overlord, demanded that the video streaming service pay an unspecified ransom to prevent episodes from Season 5 being prematurely released online.
But after receiving no response from Netflix, the hacker claims to have released episodes 1-10 of the new season, out of a total of 13 episodes.
The Associated Press could not legally confirm the authenticity of that uploaded file.
New episodes of Orange is the New Black (OITNB) are scheduled for official release on 9 June, but may need to be moved up because of the leak.
Netflix said that a small production vendor that works with several major TV studios had suffered a breach.
The Los Gatos, California, company described it as an “active situation” that’s being investigated by the FBI and other authorities.
Pirated copies of OITNB could dent Netflix’s subscriber growth and the company’s stock price.
In the ransom note, The Dark Overlord claimed to have stolen series from other studios, too, by breaking into a single company:
Who is next on the list? FOX, IFC, NAT GEO, and ABC. Oh, what fun we’re all going to have. We’re not playing any games anymore.
The purported hacker promised to also release those titles unless “modest” ransoms are paid.
Rumors of a massive leak of Hollywood films and TV episodes have been circulating online for months, fed by purported screenshots of the footage and a copy of a proposed deal to delete the stolen material in return for tens of thousands of dollars in electronic currency.
When the AP contacted The Dark Overlord in February, the hacker said the purloined video wouldn’t be made publicly available after all, making the far-fetched claim that “no one really (cares) about unreleased movies and TV show episodes.”
It’s not clear what triggered The Dark Overload’s renewed ransom demands.
Netflix is counting on OITNB to help it add 3.2 million subscribers from April through June.
That’s substantially higher than the company’s average gain of 1.8 million subscribers in the same period over the past five years.
Whenever Netflix’s quarterly subscriber gains fall short of management’s projections, the company’s stock usually plunges.
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