By Odin's beard! Marvel's 'Thor: Ragnarok' accidentally made available on Apple's iTunes a...

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2018
The hit Marvel Studios film "Thor: Ragnarok" isn't scheduled to get a digital release until Feb. 20. But some lucky customers received an early download of the blockbuster, thanks to a glitch in iTunes.




The bug may be related to the Movies Anywhere service that allows purchases from one digital storefront to be made available on another, like iTunes. A Reddit user spotted by TorrentFreak claimed they purchased the latest "Thor" on Vudu, and the Movies Anywhere link to iTunes somehow placed the film in their digital library a month before release.

After the user reported the bug, others began buying "Thor: Ragnarok" on Vudu and then accessing it on their iTunes account.

After the pristine digital copy leaked, pirates spent hours removing digital copy protection to steal the film and distribute it via BitTorrent.

"Thor: Ragnarok" was one of the biggest films of 2017, grossing more than $850 million worldwide. Directed by Taika Waititi and starring Chris Hemsworth, the third film in the standalone "Thor" franchise was also a hit with critics, and is 92 percent "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film is currently available to preorder on iTunes, but it appears the Vudu and Movies Anywhere bug has been addressed.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    levilevi Posts: 344member
    Great Odin’s ravens - awesome title. 👍🏻 
    nhughesrandominternetperson
  • Reply 2 of 6
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    My second favorite movie of last year, the first being Blade Runner 2049.
    JWSC
  • Reply 3 of 6
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    Not that I need to know the specifics or advocate piracy, but how do the pirates crack the DRM? The only method I know for sure that would work is to exploit the “analog hole.” Or in other words, video record the screen with a camera. That would result in a big loss of quality however. 
    curtis hannah
  • Reply 4 of 6
    bestkeptsecretbestkeptsecret Posts: 4,265member

    I quite enjoyed this in the theatre. However, like almost all the Marvel movies I've seen so far, it's not something I want to revisit.

    I'd probably rent it once because I'm partial to The Hulk.

    edited January 2018
  • Reply 5 of 6
    charlesatlascharlesatlas Posts: 398member
    linkman said:
    Not that I need to know the specifics or advocate piracy, but how do the pirates crack the DRM? The only method I know for sure that would work is to exploit the “analog hole.” Or in other words, video record the screen with a camera. That would result in a big loss of quality however. 
    There are cards that can capture HDMI streams. The huge files are then re-encoded in h.264 or h.265 to a decent file size.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    charlesatlas said:
    linkman said:
    Not that I need to know the specifics or advocate piracy, but how do the pirates crack the DRM? The only method I know for sure that would work is to exploit the “analog hole.” Or in other words, video record the screen with a camera. That would result in a big loss of quality however. 
    There are cards that can capture HDMI streams. The huge files are then re-encoded in h.264 or h.265 to a decent file size.
    Isn't that HDMI stream encrypted via HDCP? Or do some of the content providers allow playback to an external device without DRM? Or has HDCP been cracked?
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