Game of Thrones season 7 leak: Four arrested in India

Police says that privileged access to advance episodes

Four people have been arrested in India for leaking Game of Thrones season 7 episode 4, 'The Spoils of War'.

After receiving a complaint from a Mumbai-based company that processes Thrones episodes for an app, "we investigated the case and have arrested four individuals for unauthorised publication of the fourth episode from season seven," Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan told AFP.

A watermark on the leaked version of the episode, which surfaced online two days before its official broadcast, suggested it belonged to Indian distributor Star India.

The 21st Century Fox-owned company quickly released a statement following the leak, saying: "This confirms the compromise of episode 4 of Game of Thrones Season 7, earlier this afternoon. We take this breach very seriously and have immediately initiated forensic investigations at our and the technology partner’s end to swiftly determine the cause. This is a grave issue and we are taking appropriate legal remedial action."

Police said that the four individuals arrested over the leak had company credentials that provided them access to the episodes in advance.

Starting with season 6, HBO withheld episode screeners for the show from journalists and critics in the hope of minimising leaks.

Episode 4 is currently the only one this season to have leaked, but two script summaries have come out via the HBO hack.

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