Orange is the New Black season 5 in danger of leak due to hacker

This is the sort of Orange is the New Black season 5 news that we didn’t want to report on. Why? It’s simple: Hackers suck.

The Associated Press reported on late Friday that a hacker has found a way to breach a system of a major studio, and as a result of that, has acquired the entire fifth season of the hotly-anticipated Netflix series, which is slated to premiere in a number of weeks. They are threatening to release it, unless of course they are paid a “modest” sum to go away.

The first thing that we’ll say about this is obviously that it’s terrible. One of the reasons why there’s been so much talk about a looming writers’ strike is because piracy is so high. If there were higher ratings and streams for every show out there, there’d be more money for everyone. While we know that Netflix requires a monthly fee and not everyone out there can afford it, that doesn’t coalesce with anyone having the right to pirate the show rather than help to compensate people for their work. That doesn’t happen with any other business.

The other thing, meanwhile, that we have to say is that the odds of this working out for the hacker feel pretty low since there’s very little reason for anyone to negotiate with them. Also, the FBI is involved, and we feel like sooner or later this person’s going to get caught. It is a dangerous tightrope, though, given that if they make a wrong move and these episodes are out there, they could be put online. Once the metaphorical toothpaste is out of the tube, it’s all of a sudden much more challenging to get all of the videos out there before it contaminates the internet.

So what can you do? It’s rather simple: Just don’t watch the show if you see the pirated versions of the show out there. Respect the people that created, and the other fans who want to be unspoiled. There is a lot to look forward to when it comes to Orange is the New Black season 5, in particular the tight time-frame of it as all of the episodes are set over a few days.

Update: Since first reporting this story and the ransom demand was not met, the hackers have apparently started to post the episodes online. Please don’t watch it, and support programming in its expected forum.