Nearly half of the latest season of “Game of Thrones” has leaked online, and the series hasn’t even premiered yet.
Four of the ten scheduled episodes appeared online on multiple torrenting websites Saturday, and have already been downloaded over 800,000 times.
But the leak wasn’t because of a hack. IGN reports that the episodes look like they came off a DVD screener sent out by HBO for the press. They’re available for download on sites like The Pirate Bay, RARBG and KickassTorrents.
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes called it the most pirated show of all, but he didn’t see that as a bad thing.
“Our experience is [piracy] leads to more penetration, more paying subs, more health for HBO, less reliance on having to do paid advertising. If you go around the world, I think you’re right, Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world. Well, you know, that’s better than an Emmy.”
“Game of Thrones” season five premieres Sunday night on HBO. (RELATED: Things Look Bleak For Arya Stark In This Newly Released ‘Game Of Thrones’ Clip [VIDEO])