AfterDawn: News

iTunes accidentally becomes source of piracy

Apple has accidentally become a source of piracy after the fourth episode of the latest season of “Stargate Atlantis” was leaked before the series season premiere on Apple's iTunes platform. Quickly after the leak, the episode made its way to BitTorrent and other P2P networks.

The mistake has not been made public by Apple but the company has offered a $2 USD iTunes credit to all fans of the show who downloaded the show mistakenly thinking it was the first episode.



The error, it seems, was caused by a mix up in the production numbers and broadcast numbers of the episodes. The show is not shot in chronological order and therefore the fourth episode, entitled “Doppelganger”, was shot first making its production number 401 although it had a broadcast number of 404. No doubt the iTunes store mistakingly offered the the episode as the season premiere based on the production number and not the broadcast number.

The episode was available for 24 hours on iTunes before it was replaced by the real season premiere.

More updates on whether Apple will have to compensate MGM for the leak.

Source:
TF

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 7 Oct 2007 19:55

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• 8 comments

• ps2racer

  Seems like alot of things are being leaked here lately. Sounds fishy.

  7.10.2007 20:36 #1

• WierdName

  Sounds like someone might get fired.

  7.10.2007 20:47 #2

• Bladerz05

  it was a simple mistake,, but needless one that shouldn't have happened in the first place. at my work, if a title is released before the release date, there is a $10,000 fine for each item sold. If this is the same for an online based download, refunding the $2 to the paying customers is gonna be the least of there worries.

  7.10.2007 21:33 #3

• ps2racer

  I hope that is a $10,000 fine for the company and not for the person that made the mistake. Simple but costly mistake.

  7.10.2007 21:41 #4

• chaos_zzz

  simple mistake but don't know about like ps2racer said lot of things are being leaked lately

  8.10.2007 08:26 #5

• edsrouter

  Does anyone think there is some sort of massive scale lawsuit brewing and these leaks are part of the conspiracy as sort of a Catch 22?

  8.10.2007 08:57 #6

• c1c

  I'm sure they have mass conspiracies in a way to control the mass public.

  9.10.2007 06:39 #7

• borhan9

  Well its good to see that apple moved quickly to rectify the issue at hand.

  18.10.2007 17:36 #8