The popular Marvel Studios Spoilers subreddit has gone private which follows an ongoing investigation about leaks surrounding Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Reddit users trying to view the sub are redirected to a page that says “r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers is a private community” and “the moderators of r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers have set this community to private. Only approved members can view and take part in its discussions.”
Update: The mods have updated with the following message: “NOTE: This sub is TEMPORARILY set to private while we address any concerns with Reddit. Any public statement contrary to this is not factual, including those made by former moderators no longer associated with the subreddit. We are not associated with any other Marvel-related spoiler/scoop subreddits, new or old. We are not answering questions from the public at this time. We are NOT granting access to any users at this time—please don’t ask to be added.”
The Marvel Studios Spoilers subreddit features thousands of Reddit users who visit the sub daily to discuss the MCU.
Marvel demands Google and Reddit user identities behind Ant-Man leaks
At issue is that Marvel is demanding from Reddit the identities of users who have posted information from a legit Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania leaked document (let’s hope they used VPNs and one-time use account e-mail addresses) uploaded to Google that appears to have originated as a translated subtitle document for the movie’s release in foreign countries.
While I don’t believe the document or any of the content was actually posted verbatim by the Redditors, Marvel is still going after Reddit to get the identities of the Redditors, likely their e-mail addresses and IP addresses.
The account Marvel wants the info from is user/MSSmods which, according to the sub, is an account that is shared by numerous users.
Worth a mention is that the account often posts “verified” Marvel spoilers by the mods, so it could be possible one or more of the users is actually an employee at Marvel or a related Disney company and even that Marvel is targeting them for posting leaks in addition to the ones from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (let’s hope Marvel is not blaming the leaks for the movie’s failure).
Marvel has filed court documents
Last Friday saw Marvel file DMCA documents with a court in California targeting Google and Reddit for the leak, as Marvel previously filed a copyright infringement notice with Google about the document uploaded to Google and described the copyrighted content as: “Unreleased leaked script of the new Disney movie Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
The legit leak uploaded to Google is said to be 63 pages long and involves “translated dialogue” from writer Jeff Loveness where the user who uploaded it states it’s a “complete plot leak” and “spoils literally every spoken sentence in the movie.”
In the days following the DMCA takedown request, the leak was removed, so Google didn’t have to do anything about it, and Marvel is also seeking from Google the identity of the user that uploaded it.
Marvel in part is requesting:
– All Identifying Information for any other user(s) responsible for posting, editing, and/or maintaining the content previously available on the Reddit Site, including, without limitation, any moderator of the MarvelStudioSpoilers subreddit involved in uploading content on or about January 20, 2023 to the Reddit Site comprising and/or related to the dialogue of then-unreleased motion picture “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”
– All Identifying Information for any user involved, between January 15, 2023 and February 15, 2023, in posting and/or editing the Infringing Content. (edited for clarity)
Torrent Freak has a rundown of what went down and posted the legal documents filed by Marvel.
