Marvel is closing in on the source of a script leak from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania before the film was released, and it intends to take legal action, a source from the Disney company says The Hollywood Reporter.
A federal judge in California on Monday issued subpoenas to Reddit and Google ordering them to identify the users who leaked the dialogue. The order came after the company moved for information about who posted then-unreleased dialogue from the film to the r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers subreddit.
Marvel will likely pursue legal action against the person or group responsible for the leak. That could include a referral to prosecutors for criminal copyright infringement, among other charges.
On January 20th, moderators on the subreddit dedicated to spoilers for Marvel movies posted the subtitle file for the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania after unconfirmed details of the plot were leaked on the site a few months before. The moderators said the subtitles confirmed the leak. The manuscript was reportedly in another language, requiring them to be translated into English before publication.
On Friday, Marvel requested “all identifying information” for the users who run r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers in addition to “any other user responsible for posting, editing and/or maintaining the content” on the subreddit from Jan. 15 to Feb. 15.
Google was also issued a subpoena for hosting a Google Docs file with the script that was too long to be posted on Reddit.
The lawsuit was filed under 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 joined 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, which had plot details leaked ahead of their theatrical debuts. In the era of COVID-19, Marvel has had an increasingly difficult time maintaining its secrets due to more people having access to sensitive information. The pool of potential leaks has expanded, for example with the need for more VFX artists who regularly work from home.
Marvel could refer to the incident being taken up by prosecutors. To substantiate a claim of criminal copyright infringement, the defendant must have willfully infringed the copyright and sought to profit from the infringement. Prosecutors could also establish that the defendant made a work available to the public online with knowledge that the copyright holder intended to distribute it commercially in the near future, rather than having to prove that the infringer intended to draw commercial advantage at the expense of the copyright holder. .
In a statement, a Reddit spokesperson said the company is “committed to protecting the privacy of our users” and has “rigorous processes in place to assess legal requests and object when appropriate.”
Marvel Studios and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.