The internet went crazy a week ago as the 4th episode of the latest season of Game Of Thrones leaked and fans were able to catch the episode before it aired. Fast forward a week and four men have been arrested over the leak. The breach was initially pegged to HBO’s India distribution partner Star India shortly after the fourth episode of season seven hit torrent sites on the morning of August 3rd. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Star India and Novi Digital said Monday that
“We have just learnt from law enforcement agencies about the significant progress made by them into the investigation of the breach … including the arrest of four individuals associated with our technology vendor, Prime Focus Technologies. This is the first time in the history of Star India that an incident of this nature has occurred. We are deeply grateful to the police for their swift and prompt action. 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 breach’s timing was not good as HBO has been attempting to contain the fallout of anonymous hackers who say they’ve stolen 1.5 terabytes of data from the pay cable network — a mix of video content, Game of Thrones scripts and emails.
The police headed to Bangalore office of Prime Focus and interrogated employees throughout the night on Friday. A Special IGP statement stated,
“The investigation revealed complicity and involvement of more persons than those specifically named in the [complaint], particularly the ones working in the office and otherwise lawfully having access to the raw data of the series. The information and material collected at the Bangalore office and the Mumbai Police station was collated, studied and analyzed by the police. On being satisfied that the material collected by the investigating agency sufficiently established the role and involvement of various persons, [the four arrests were made].”
The four men will remain in custody for seven days, while the police continue with their investigation. No word on what the outcome may be.
