Hackers Leak 'Orange Is The New Black' Season 5 Premiere Online, Threaten Fox, ABC, IFC, Nat Geo

The season premiere of the hit T.V. series, "Orange is the New Black" was supposed to be launched in June, but a hacking group, which calls itself TheDarkOverlord, has leaked the episode online in a torrent.

TheDarkOverlord says that it had asked Netflix for ransom and since it did not receive a reply, it leaked the series.

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“We managed to weave ourselves into the foundation of one company who gave us access to a significant title in the Netflix original series portfolio: 'Orange Is The New Black' - Season 5. But that's not all, we also helped ourselves to copies of titles from other companies. However, this specific release will focus on Netflix," the group wrote in a message posted on PasteBin. "Because the titles were months away from their scheduled airtimes, we pulled back and waited for the trailers to drop to assist us in the verification of our loot - just in case. And sure enough, the trailers dropped and we were able to find the scenes that were used."

The previous season of the show opened to high viewing figures — the season 4 premiere was watched by 6.7 million people, according to Nielsen. This is a huge number since Netflix's total viewership in the U.S. is around 81 million.

Subscription-based content streaming is the core of Netflix’s revenue model and the company could suffer from the leak, not only in terms of revenue generated from viewership but also the company’s growth and even its share price, the Associated Press reported.

The hacking group, which also tweeted threats to other programmers about their content being leaked online, said that it then approached Netflix "and friends" in order to "devise a mutually beneficial arrangement."

"Our proposals went unanswered so our hands have been forced. We were quite offended by our targets' responses (or lack thereof),” it added.

Later, the hacking group also leaked episodes 2-10 of the series online.

When contacted by the AP, Netflix representatives stated that the leak originated with a small production vendor, which works with major TV studios. The company added that FBI and other agencies were investigating the issue.

TorrentFreak, a site which writes about torrents, named Larson Studios, an audio production company doing automatic dialog replacement work for many studios, as the source of the breach.

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And, it would seem that the TheDarkOverlord group is not finished leaking content yet. In the press release accompanying the leaked episodes, it warned studios: “You’re going to lose a lot more money in all of this than what our modest offer was. We're quite ashamed to breathe the same air as you. We figured a pragmatic business such as yourselves would see and understand the benefits of cooperating with a reasonable and merciful entity like ourselves. And to the others: there's still time to save yourselves. Our offer(s) are still on the table - for now."