The popular TV drama Homeland is about American Homeland Security and a double agent Marine Corps officer.
In an ironic turn of events, someone has betrayed producer 20th Century Fox by leaking the first episode of the third season online when the premiere date is not until September 29 in the US and the beginning of October in the UK.
The Emmy award-winning drama suffered a security breach of its own when the episode was found to be streamed on BitTorrent. According to TorrentFreak, more than 100,000 users pirated the episode within hours of it being uploaded.
20th Century Fox has said its anti-piracy unit is addressing the issue.
Homeland is not the first TV show to suffer a security breach; HBO’s Game of Thrones is often leaked and is frequently pirated online.
However, unlike Fox, HBO don’t mind the illegal online viewings. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes boasted about the widespread piracy of Game of Thrones, saying that being the most pirated show on the Internet was "better than an Emmy."
Once shows have been aired in the US, it is not uncommon for viewers in the UK to illegally stream the shows online, as UK channels often delay airing shows, sometimes for up to several months.
Sky One combated this trend by airing episodes of the new series of Glee the same week that they were premiered in the US.
Do you wait for shows to be aired on television or do you watch pirate episodes online in advance?
