Marvel is closing in on the source of a leak of an Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania script before the film was released and intends to take legal action, a source with Disney company told.
A federal judge in California on Monday issued subpoenas to Reddit and Google directing them to identify the users who leaked the dialogue. The order came after the company moved information about whoever posted then-unreleased dialogue from the film to the r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers subreddit.
Marvel will likely take legal action against the person or group responsible for the leak. This could include, among other things, a referral to the prosecutor for criminal copyright infringement.
Moderators of the subreddit dedicated to spoilers for Marvel movies released the subtitles file for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on January 20, after unconfirmed plot details were leaked to the site a few months earlier. The presenters said the subtitles confirmed the leak. The script was reportedly in a different language, so it had to be translated into English before release.
On Friday, Marvel requested “all identifying information” for the users running r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers, in addition to “all other users responsible for posting, editing and/or maintaining the content” on the subreddit from January 15th through February 2nd. 15
Google was also issued a subpoena for hosting a Google Docs file containing the script that was too long to post on Reddit.
The subpoena was filed pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows copyright owners to obtain information identifying alleged infringers. The law aims to criminalize practices aimed at circumventing measures that control access to copyrighted works.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania joins the ranks of other Marvel films, including Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where details became known about the plot of their theater premieres. In the COVID-19 era, Marvel has faced an increasingly difficult time keeping its secrets as more and more people have access to sensitive information. For example, the pool of potential leaks has expanded with the need for more VFX artists working from home on a regular basis.
Marvel could indicate that the incident is being taken up by prosecutors. In order to establish a claim of criminal copyright infringement, the defendant must have intentionally infringed the copyright and attempted to make money from the infringement. Prosecutors could also find that the defendant made a work publicly available online knowing that the copyright owner intended to distribute it commercially in the near future, rather than having to show that the infringer intended to obtain a commercial benefit at the copyright owner’s expense to achieve .
In a statement, a Reddit spokesperson said the company is “committed to protecting the privacy of our users” and has “rigorous procedures for evaluating legal requests and objections, where appropriate.”
Marvel Studios and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.