History Main / ContentLeak

Leaks have become increasingly common starting with the 2000s and 2010s as the technology to do so has become more widespreadani. However they happen, though, leaks tend to make companies ''very'' unhappy, and larger ones especially are prone to sending their [[ScrewedByTheLawyers armies of lawyers]] after anyone who dares to reveal these spoilers.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'':

Leaks have become increasingly common starting with the 2000s and 2010s as the technology to do so has become more widespread. However they happen, though, leaks tend to make companies ''very'' unhappy, and larger ones especially are prone to sending their [[ScrewedByTheLawyers armies of lawyers]] after anyone who dares to reveal these spoilers.

* On September 29, 2022, five episodes of ''Series/DonkeyHodie'' ("A Donkey Hodie Halloween", "Snow Day", "Snow Surprise Challenge", "Yodel Bird Sitting" and "Superhero Squabble") were accidentally leaked by TVO Kids. In addition, "A Donkey Hodie Halloween" and "Snow Surprise Challenge" were accidentally made available worldwide, which would be fixed on October 5, 2022, with the episodes being region-locked to Canada only.

* On May 16, 2023, a disgruntled insider in Creator/MarvelComics leaked the last pages of ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderMan2022'' #26, revealing that [[spoiler:Kamala Khan, the current Ms. Marvel, would die]]. This infuriated fans so much that Marvel was forced to concede and reveal a classified one-shot for July since the cat was out of the bag.

** In October 2021, Stern posted [[https://insider.sternpinball.com/exclusives/80 an article exclusive to their Insider Connected service]] detailing the development of ''Pinball/GodzillaStern''. A user on the pinball forum Pinside subsequently noticed that the first picture in the article showed the side of another machine in the background, with the edges of a logo visible. Closer analysis revealed that it was almost identical to the logo Music/{{Rush|Band}} used for [[Music/RushAlbum their first album]]. After this discovery, Stern replaced the image with a version that crops out everything but the main playfield.

* Episode 2 of ''LightNovel/{{Oreimo}}'' was leaked from Anime News Network's servers a day before it was broadcast in Japan, which led to the simulcast being temporarily halted.

* Stephenie Meyer's ''Literature/MidnightSun2020'', which was supposed to be ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' [[PerspectiveFlip from Edward's POV]], had several chapters leaked online by one of her beta readers in 2008. She felt so betrayed over the whole thing that she scrapped the whole project and posted the leaked chapters on her own website. However, years later she finished the novel, and it was published in 2020.

* In later years, it happened many times that pictures of upcoming Games Workshop releases (both for ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'') appeared on the web before their official announcements, whether be blurry version of promotional pictures or people actually selling the yet unreleased kits online (as it happened with the ''Horus Heresy'' version of Ahriman and the plastic Fiends of Slaanesh kit). Luckily Games Workshop is known to take the matter very lightly and usually answers to the leaks by giving high quality pictures of the leaked stuff, usually by making lighthearted jabs to the leakers in either blog post or video form.

* Music/Nirvana's single version of ''You Know You're Right'' was leaked to the internet a month before it was officially released as part of a boxed set. The song, which had only been heard a few times in concert and a rewritten version on Hole's Unplugged set, was highly anticipated and held in legal limbo with Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic wanting it released as soon as possible. It coincidentally was leaked the evening that Courtney Love hosted an all-night show on MTV2, and when going to a break, audiences could hear Love arguing with somebody, thought by fans to be her reaction to the leak.

** In October 2021, Stern posted [[https://insider.sternpinball.com/exclusives/80 an article exclusive to their Insider Connected service]] detailing the development of ''Pinball/GodzillaStern''. A user on the pinball forum Pinside subsequently noticed that the first picture in the article showed the side of another machine in the background, with the edges of a logo visible. Closer analysis revealed that it was almost identical to the logo Music/{{Rush}} used for [[Music/RushAlbum their first album]]. After this discovery, Stern replaced the image with a version that crops out everything but the main playfield.

* On September 29, 2022, five episodes of ''Series/DonkeyHodie'' ("A Donkey Hodie Halloween", "Snow Day", "Snow Surprise Challenge", "Yodel Bird Sitting" and "Superhero Squabble") were accidentally leaked by TVO Kids, and in the case of "A Donkey Hodie Halloween" and "Snow Surprise Challenge", were accidentally made available worldwide. This would be fixed on October 5, 2022, with the episodes being region-locked to Canada only.

[[AcmeProducts ACME Productions]] have been working for the past year on their hit television show, ''AliceAndBob''. The past several seasons have been a total hit with audiences, [[FountainOfMemes just about every memorable quote has become a meme]], and everyone is just counting down the days until release. Everything is going very well, and ACME are about to hit the metaphorical button to launch their newest season!

But then all of a sudden, it somehow wound up on the internet. Somehow, someway, all of the new season's episodes and content have suddenly become downloadable due to being purloined and posted on piracy websites. In a few short hours, all of the careful preparation and marketing [[ItWasHisSled is now common knowledge]].

This is the dreaded Content Leak. The occurrence when upcoming episodes, images, songs, scripts, seasons, plans, or even general information winds up becoming known despite [[SpoilAtYourOwnRisk its intent to be kept secret]].

* ''Pinball/{{Deadpool}}'': An early prototype of the playfield was leaked in late 2017 on Facebook.

* A rough draft for the first episode of the ''Franchise/OnePiece'' live-action series was posted on Scriptshadow in March 2020 and was leaked all over social media. It was eventually taken down two months later.

* Music/{{Pendulum}}: The cover art for the Elemental EP was posted on VK about a month before it was officially revealed.

* In later years, it happened many times that pictures of upcoming Games Workshop releases (both for ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'') appeared on the web before their official announcements, whether be blurry version of promotional pictures or people actually selling the yet unreleased kits online (as it happened with the ''Horus Heresy'' version of Ahriman and the plastic Fiends of Slaanesh kit). Luckily Games Workshop is known to take the matter very lightly and usually answers to the leaks by giving high quality pictures of the leaked stuff, usually by making a video featuring lighthearted jabs to the leakers.

* Many figures from the first wave of the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' ''War for Cybertron: Kingdom'' toyline were leaked early before their proper announcement and release due to people stealing finished toys from the factory line and selling them to toy reviewers.