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Piracy Television Movies Security

Hacker Leaks 'Orange Is the New Black' Episodes After Failing To Extort Netflix (bleepingcomputer.com) 144

Posted by EditorDavid from the money-for-media dept.
An anonymous reader writes: "A hacker (or hacker group) known as The Dark Overlord (TDO) has leaked the first ten episodes of season 5 of the "Orange Is The New Black" show after two failed blackmail attempts, against Larson Studios and Netflix," reports BleepingComputer. The hacker said he stole hundreds of gigabytes of audio files from Larson Studios last December. "TDO claims the studio initially agreed to pay a ransom of 50 Bitcoin ($67,000) by January 31, and the two parties even signed a contract, albeit TDO signed it using the name 'Adolf Hitler.'" This might have been the reason why the company thought this was a joke and didn't pay the ransom as initially agreed.

At this point, the hacker turned from the studio to Netflix, but the company didn't want to pay either. As a warning, the hacker leaked the first episode of season 5, but half a day later, he leaked 9 more. "According to Netflix's website, season 5 is supposed to have 13 episodes and is scheduled for release in June, this year." The hacker also claims he's in possession of shows and movies from other movie studios and television channels, such as FOX, IFC, NAT GEO, and ABC. Some of the titles include "Celebrity Apprentice," "NCIS Los Angeles," "New Girl," and "XXX The return of Xander Cage".
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Hacker Leaks 'Orange Is the New Black' Episodes After Failing To Extort Netflix More

Hacker Leaks 'Orange Is the New Black' Episodes After Failing To Extort Netflix

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  • And... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Nothing of any value was lost.

  • Who cares. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30, 2017 @06:43PM (#54330599)

    If you have Netflix, you'll watch it when it comes out in June.
    If you pirate, you'll pirate it when it comes out in June.

    This is only letting pirates get it early, but they can't talk about it mainstream, lest they out themselves as a pirate.

  • Wow (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kamapuaa ( 555446 ) on Sunday April 30, 2017 @06:55PM (#54330629) Homepage

    What a triumph of free speech.

    • I don't think this matters much. Anyone likely to download the leaked episodes wouldn't pay for Netflix anyway; they're just getting the episodes earlier, and that's a small % of the viewing audience. Anyone who pays for Netflix and watches these episodes legit isn't likely to go figure out Bittorrent and get them early either. So who cares? Obviously not Netflix.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        You are mistaken. As a netflix customer, I feel more than justified downloading via bittorrent - and I don't like to wait. A better question is, if I am paying for Netflix anyway, is there any harm being done?

        • Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)

          by baker_tony ( 621742 ) on Sunday April 30, 2017 @08:57PM (#54331073) Homepage

          "if I am paying for Netflix anyway, is there any harm being done?"
          Yes, hundreds of kittens will be murdered and the tooth fairy will get run over if you watch downloaded shows that weren't downloaded right.

        • I know some content is paid by streams per month, but don't know about this. So there's probably pennies not being kicked back to the OTNB owners.

      • Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)

        by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Sunday April 30, 2017 @07:53PM (#54330827) Journal
        What about those who pay for Netflix but aren't getting content in a timely manner (most series), see content disappear after a year (there's been a terrible purge here recently), or aren't getting the content at all? The availability and selection in certain smaller countries is kind of rubbish compared to what one gets in the US or the UK. So yes, in some cases even Netflix subscribers have to resort to Bittorrent. Maybe this is due to outdated license models, where one can buy the rights to show something in country X for a period of Y months or some such, instead of a license granting the right to show it everywhere for a certain amount per view. In the meantime I sure hope my country will at some point revive its old policy on piracy: "If content isn't available legally, then we don't prosecute people who pirate it". If you don't sell your content here, you should have no recourse against pirates; remember that copyright is not a natural right but something cooked up to encourage production and distribution of cultural works, by granting artists a temporary monopoly that enables them to make some money off their creation. I will pay for content, but if you will not take my money I have zero moral objections to availing myself of your works by other means.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Uberbah ( 647458 )

          What about those who pay for Netflix but aren't getting content in a timely manner (most series), see content disappear after a year (there's been a terrible purge here recently), or aren't getting the content at all?

          Take your complaints to the studios demanding fees so high that Netflix would lose money by carrying their content. Any more questions?

          • I'm hoping that Netflix will start flexing its muscles a bit more. Same as Apple did when they started selling songs online, when the music industry was still very much used to the album model. Now they've gone to a pay-per-play model, with most distributors offering an all you can eat subscription. I'm hoping the TV and movie industry will make the same shift at some point. Not because I want to pay less but because I want to pirate less, and this region crap and artificial scarcity make no sense in a pay-

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by swb ( 14022 )

              They are flexing their muscles buy creating/buying their own exclusive content. The entire goal seems to be to have enough unique content to attract and maintain a decent audience, making third parties negotiate harder for content.

              I think the culture of Hollywood (from mansions to coke to sports cars) is probably the root of all of it. Maybe Netflix should have tried to bootstrap a new center of film & TV production outside of Hollywood to re-invent the culture from the ground up, or at least have les

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Rakarra ( 112805 )

              Same as Apple did when they started selling songs online, when the music industry was still very much used to the album model.

              The movie industry learned a bit of a lesson from the music industry, and have made sure that they're not beholden to any particular service like the music industry became to Apple. The streaming choices are all very fractured, no particular company can claim dominance, and the movie studios seem like they're totally ok with totally withholding some content from the streaming world entirely, and withholding other content for anything other than an exorbitant price and locked-in DRM.

        • What about those who pay for Netflix but aren't getting content in a timely manner (most series), see content disappear after a year (there's been a terrible purge here recently), or aren't getting the content at all?

          They should stop paying for Netflix.

          Personally I've shelled out for Netflix for years and while it doesn't show me everything I want when I want I'm pretty satisfied. And I like OITNB, but I really am not going to go out of my way to see it before its official release. If there were some deleted scenes I might be tempted but I haven't pirated anything since I cut the cord and had to torrent the last few episodes of Breaking Bad.

          I actually felt a little guilty about that because it was available on iTunes

          • It's Amazon and Netflix's fault you can only watch one thing at a time? Try evolution, buddy. Two eyes, two ears, one brain. You can try and watch both at the same time, but it's going to suck.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Even in the UK the selection is crap. iPlayer is getting worse too. Poor picture quality, poor selection.

        • It's not netflix.

          First warner and then stars and then others raised the cost of their content to netflix by as much as 1000%.

          They were going to monetize it for their own, $10 a month stations.

          But you know what.. I don't WANT to pay $10 to netflix and $10 to warner and $10 to stars, and $10 to....

          Netflix was the rare bird who gave great content at a reasonable price.

          I'm irritated that Prime split the market and then set up a kludgy interface which constantly tries to upsell me non-free shows. I used it some

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Tukz ( 664339 )

            Make a global platform, where the networks can add their catalogue.
            I'd gladly pay $50+ for that.

            Not $10 per network on each of their own software platforms that may, or may not, work on my devices.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rakarra ( 112805 )

            Netflix was the rare bird who gave great content at a reasonable price.

            Which is one of the reasons why the studios have tried so very hard to kill Netflix. They were quite open and vocal about their belief that Netflix's model absolutely screwed them over in the DVD era. Before streaming, everyone loved Netflix and you could get an amazing variety of things at a reasonable price, all in one place. But again, the studios HATED the fact that Netflix didn't charge premium prices for "premium" titles, they hated the fact that it was not pay-per-view, they hated the fact that renta

        • Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)

          by trawg ( 308495 ) on Monday May 01, 2017 @05:36AM (#54332213) Homepage

          What about those who pay for Netflix but aren't getting content in a timely manner (most series), see content disappear after a year (there's been a terrible purge here recently), or aren't getting the content at all?

          This is why Netflix spend $1b on technology per year and $4b on creating new content. They know if they own the content they can set the worldwide licensing rules. I hope they use this to force the other content owners to make more reasonable licensing decisions but given they seem to have failed to display adaptability for ~20 years I suspect they won't.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

            This is why Netflix spend $1b on technology per year and $4b on creating new content. They know if they own the content they can set the worldwide licensing rules. I hope they use this to force the other content owners to make more reasonable licensing decisions but given they seem to have failed to display adaptability for ~20 years I suspect they won't.

            It's all about the money.

            Distributors worldwide are paying big bucks for exclusivity. If Netflix wants in, they're going to have to ante up a lot of cash t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        Moreover if you already have and keep a Netflix subscription, Netflix isn't harmed if you watch them on some pirate site. After all netflix does not show commercials, so their is no loss of ad revenue. If anything it saves Netflix some bandwidth, their costs go down!

      • 9 of 13 episodes, anyone desperate enough to download this is going to be very dissappointed in the lack of an ending. This could actually increase netflix subscriptions just to find out how it ended.

  • And Netflix executives think (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dunbal ( 464142 ) * on Sunday April 30, 2017 @07:02PM (#54330641)
    "Hacker provides much more than $57000 worth of free publicity for our series"

  • New TV Series (Score:3)

    by PocketPick ( 798123 ) on Sunday April 30, 2017 @07:30PM (#54330731)

    I'll be eagerly looking forward to the soon-to-be-announced reality TV version of "Orange is the New Black", starting the members of The Dark Overlord hacker group.

  • "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
  • Luckily it's Netflix's own IP that was leaked, and it won't affect their partnerships with other studios, although they obviously need to get a handle on their security.

  • How do you trust Hitler? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DidgetMaster ( 2739009 ) on Sunday April 30, 2017 @08:13PM (#54330913) Homepage
    Maybe the companies just decided that the extortionist was probably going to leak the videos anyway. Once the ransom is paid, there is absolutely nothing preventing him from releasing it. It's not like he has any morals whatsoever that might prevent him from double-crossing them. So it's just better to keep the money and not give an incentive for the next pirate hacker to try it too.

    • Or perhaps Netflix figured the people who'd go looking for these videos likely would be hunting for torrents once the season is released, regardless.

      If you figure you're not going to get a dime out of the folks who are the likely audience for these stolen videos, what financial incentive is there to pay the ransom?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by ColdSam ( 884768 )

        Or perhaps Netflix figured the people who'd go looking for these videos likely would be hunting for torrents once the season is released, regardless.

        If you figure you're not going to get a dime out of the folks who are the likely audience for these stolen videos, what financial incentive is there to pay the ransom?

        Except these episodes would be available BEFORE the official release which is a huge incentive for otherwise law abiding fans to find the pirated version. Once they've figured out how to do that, they may never go back.

    • I think the standard procedure it to repeat the request for money if they pay your first ransom.

      For what's better than a lot of money? MORE lots of money! If they were willing to pay e.g. 68.000$ or whatever in the first place, then perhaps they're willing to pay... let's say... the same sum again?

      Thus no one can trust a blackmailer, especially when it's digital wares.

    • I was imagining that they were working with the FBI, and they were playing along in an attempt to get more information on the perpetrator's identity.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Eloking ( 877834 )

      Maybe the companies just decided that the extortionist was probably going to leak the videos anyway. Once the ransom is paid, there is absolutely nothing preventing him from releasing it. It's not like he has any morals whatsoever that might prevent him from double-crossing them. So it's just better to keep the money and not give an incentive for the next pirate hacker to try it too.

      Well, if the hackers are bright (and they usually are), they would delete the pirated contract after they receive the money unless they want to scare potential future victims.

      Terrorist abducting in the world are a good example of this. If they killed their victim after receiveing a ransom, there won't be a second time (yeah we aren't supposed to negociate with terrorism, but the reality is that it happens : https://www.pri.org/stories/20... [pri.org])

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rakarra ( 112805 )

      Maybe the companies just decided that the extortionist was probably going to leak the videos anyway. Once the ransom is paid, there is absolutely nothing preventing him from releasing it. It's not like he has any morals whatsoever that might prevent him from double-crossing them.

      Sure, he probably doesn't have morals, but the question is whether he thought he could do this a second time.
      An extortionist has to be able to dangle a plausible carrot of hope in order for an extortion to be paid, otherwise the next person he tries to extort won't give him a penny. Conversely, the extortionist also has to back up his threats if his victim won't pay, otherwise he has no credibility. If you want to successfully extort more than one person, you need to be honest about what you'll do whether s

    • There is.. If he leaked it anyway, next time they wouldn't pay, but if he was .. 'honest'.. maybe they would pay next time too.

  • New Girl? Really? (Score:3)

    by porges ( 58715 ) on Sunday April 30, 2017 @09:03PM (#54331093) Homepage

    "New Girl" has finished its season and has not even been renewed yet, so there are no unreleased episodes of that. So..huh?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rakarra ( 112805 )

      There might be screenplays written, however. That's happened in the past.
      Not that releasing the plot would necessarily harm "New Girl," it's a show that thrives more on the journey than the destination. "OMG, what's going to happen" is not an attitude the show cultivates.

  • So, if or when the writers go on strike this content might have some actual value, and even then it is debatable. Otherwise this is just a wannabe looking for attention, or maybe even an inside job trying to stir up some publicity for crappy programming.

  • See, the problem here is that no one is asking the important questions, like does he have "Ash vs. Evil Dead" Season 3 in there somewhere? Focus, people, focus!

    • If we go down this route, we may as well make it worthwhile and ask him to leak the next 2 seasons of Firefly.

  • Contract? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mwvdlee ( 775178 ) on Monday May 01, 2017 @05:32AM (#54332203) Homepage

    A signed contract with an extortionist... WTF?

    I whose mind did the idea to sign a contract in any way make any sense at all?

    Either the hacker had to give away his complete identity in a contract that isn't legally binding (because... you know... the extortion part of the contract), or the studio had to sign a contract that is not enforcable by the hacker without giving away his complete identity (and once again, is not legally binding in any way).

    • Is there actually any evidence (beyond the hacker's assertion) that any contract actually exists?

  • Wow, those all sound like high profile works of entertainment and not garbage. I'm sure going to be disappointed at all the spoilers from the masses frantically downloading and watching these quality shows.
  • I keep trying to find more information about Xander Cage, but when I google the movie name... well... you know...

  • The studio tried to sign a "contract" with a blackmailer/extortionist? Are they really surprised he signed with a fictional name? How can they not think it is a joke?

    Somehow I think this deserves to be made into a Netfilx series, where brain dead executives that only understand one way to do things, and the befuddled criminals that have to deal with them, "Uh you want us to sign a contact? For blackmail. You want us to sign a blackmail contract? We use handles, and are asking to be paid in untraceable bitco

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