This is the second time that a forthcoming episode from the new season is leaked.

There is no doubt that “#Game of Thrones” is one of the best shows right now in television. It has been a huge success since the premier of the first season. But since HBO is doing it for business, leak episodes certainly harm its success.

According to Lifehacker, the upcoming season 7, episode 6 of “Game of Thrones” was leaked prior to its release. This is not even the first leak, with the first one being connected to a hack. Here is everything about it in a nutshell.

How the leak happened?

Basically, HBO’s very own international streaming partners HBO Nordic and HBO España were the culprits. They accidently released the aforementioned episode yesterday.

As expected, the episode was quickly grabbed by torrent sites. Heck, searching it on Google will even provide the said sites quickly. This only goes to show that the leak was a huge one compared to the previous episode. In The Pirate Bay, in particular, the episode became the second most searched in the site. Even some of the communities in Reddit offered download links.

Interestingly, this is not the first leak experienced by “Game of Thrones.” The new season’s episode 4 was also leaked prior to its official release. Remember that it was highly connected to an infamous hack, but HBO explained that it had something to do with one of their partners called Star India. The four employees of the company, however, were arrested for being responsible in the leak.

It’s simply illegal

This does not really need an explanation, but leaking official episodes is illegal.

The same notion can be applied to “Game of Thrones.” Streaming and/or downloading stuff that people did not pay for is considered a violation against U.S. law. It is also illegal to just rip an entire episode and share it to non-subscribers. For subscribers, however, it is legal to download the streaming episode if they mean to use it personally. But of course, this is only possible if they are able to bypass the DRM technology. Currently, HBO is working on making the process stricter and tighter.

In a report from TechCrunch, HBO revealed that implementations of anti-piracy will become more concrete across the network. This will not only be applied to “Game of Thrones,” as other contents from the cable company will be included. The leaked episode is set for an official release on Sunday, August 20. It is the second to the last episode of the current season. The showrunners have already confirmed Season 8, though the exact release date remains to be seen.