Over the weekend, a group of hackers stole the unreleased fifth season of Netflix's prison drama-comedy Orange Is the New Black from a production vendor. They then threatened to release the episodes unless Netflix pays an undisclosed amount as ransom.
It seems that Netflix did not negotiate with the hackers, as the first 10 episodes of the upcoming season of the show have been uploaded to popular torrent website The Pirate Bay.
Hackers Upload Unreleased 'Orange Is The New Black' Episodes
The hackers, who go by the name The Dark Overlord, infiltrated the system of a production vendor. The identity of the vendor was previously undisclosed but is now known to be Hollywood-based post-production company Larson Studios.
The Dark Overlord reportedly shared the first 10 episodes of season 5 of Orange Is the New Black before 6 a.m. ET on April 29. The 10 videos have a total file size of 11.46 GB.
It is now unclear whether Netflix will move up the premiere of Orange Is the New Black now that most of the episodes for season 5 have leaked. The season was initially planned to be released on June 9.
More TV Shows, Movies Stolen: Will They Also Be Leaked?
It was previously reported that the hackers were also able to steal content from media outfits such as Fox, National Geographic, ABC, and IFC.
The group has since shared a list of TV shows and movies that it has stolen from the database of Larson Studios. The list includes The Catch of ABC, Celebrity Apprentice of NBC, NCIS: Los Angeles of CBS, and New Girl of Fox.
Other TV shows in the list include It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia of FX, Bunk'd of Disney Channel, and Portlandia of IFC. As for movies, the hackers said that they have stolen Win It All of Netflix, A Midsummer's Nightmare of Lifetime TV, XXX: Return of Xander Cage starring Vin Diesel, and a YouTube Red special by Liza Koshy.
The hackers suggested on Twitter that they will be focusing their threats on other studios and networks, as it looked like Netflix was not fazed with their demands. The release of the fifth season of Orange Is the New Black could be their way of proving that they indeed have the videos, which may prompt other companies to treat the demands of the hackers more seriously.
Mistakes By The Dark Overlord
While the hackers may have succeeded in stealing content from Larson Studios, the crime has so far not been a perfect one for The Dark Overlord.
For one thing, it would seem that the TV shows and movies stolen by the hackers are dated. The Dark Overlord was only able to acquire the first 10 episodes of season 5 of Orange Is the New Black because the last three episodes have not yet been forwarded to Larson Studios during the time of the breach. The hackers also listed Netflix's Bill Nye Saves The World as one of the videos that they are threatening to leak, despite the fact that it has already been released.
The goal of The Dark Overlord in threatening Netflix is also unclear. Netflix customers, who pay $7.99 per month for unlimited viewing of content offered by the streaming service, will not pull out their subscriptions just because one show is leaked.
