Piracy Group Behind 'Hateful Eight' Leak Releases Apology

Hive-CM8 expressed that leaking movies will help the film industry and thanked Quentin Tarantino for making ‘The Hateful Eight.’

The piracy group behind the leaked version of The Hateful Eight, Spectre, The Big Short and other recent films say they are “sorry.” According to Business Insider, Hive-CM8 has spoken out on why they decided to leak such awards contenders and how uploading the pics online weeks before their official release "hopefully" helps the film industry.

“We didnt [sic] plan to comment at all on recent events, but we feel now that we should," said Hive-CM8 in a statement. "Sorry to disappoint, but there was no hack or any such thing. We got the copies sold from a guy on the street, no decryption was needed. We were definitely not the only ones.”

The group, which recently uploaded Anomalisa and Big Short, feels that their leaks will “hopefully help producers out in the longrun [sic]."

Hive-CM8 continued: "We actually think this has created a new type of media hype that is more present in the news, radio and in the papers than starwars [sic], and the promotional costs for this were free."

The group added: "If lets [sic] say 5% of the people planned to watch this movie at cinemadate [sic], due to this media push we unintenionally [sic] created, we believe that now 40% of the people will watch this movie in the cinema cause [sic] everyone is talking about it and everyone wants to see the movie that created so much noise. This will push the cinema tickets sale for sure."

Hive-CM8 went on to thank Quentin Tarantino for directing a great movie with Hateful Eight, praising the Western as the filmmaker's best work.

"The Hateful Eight is an excellent, thrilling and entertaining Western that combines terrific direction, a fantastic cast, a wonderful script, beautiful photography and a memorable score," the group said. "All of those elements make The Hateful Eight an unforgettable film that is Quentin Tarantino at his best ... we also think that the hateful 8 movie is the top candidate for the awards and will win by a mile over others thx tarantino for this wonderful movie [sic].”

A copy of Hateful Eight leaked online was linked to Hollywood film executive Andrew Kosove, co-CEO of production-finance company Alcon Entertainment.

According to a “Web Watch” report produced in response to the leak and shared with The Hollywood Reporter, an office assistant named "Tom" signed for the DVD at Alcon's offices. Later, a hacker or hackers identifying themselves as Hive-CM8 uploaded the Hateful Eight file after attempting to remove watermark technology from the DVD, which was manufactured by Deluxe.

The pic was one of 40 films that Hive-CM8 planned to upload, but Hive-CM8 now says they won’t reach that goal. They also stated they don't plan to leak another film before it's released in theaters.

“Sorry it was around christmas we didnt plan that at all either, we wont do another movie before its cinedate, and we def wont go up to 40 as planned, we think we have done enough already [sic]," the group said.

Read the full apology statement from Hive-CM8 below:

We didnt plan to comment at all on recent events, but we feel now that we should.

Sorry to disappoint M but there was no hack or any such thing. We got the copies sold from a guy on the street, no decryption was needed. we were definately not the only ones. cpl other movies have been on the net days before, not done from us So we wanted to share this movies with the people who are not rich enough or not able to watch all nominated movies in the cinema.

Of course this files are not representing the movies how they can be enjoyed in the cinema

As said in our nfo, please support the producers and watch all movies in the cinema on a big screen, like you should do anyhow. The Producers need the money from ticket sales to get back the production costs.

As for Hateful Eight Movie:

We feel sorry for the trouble we caused by releasing that great movie before cinedate even has begun. we never intended to hurt anyone by doing that, we didnt know it would get that popular that quickly

The Hateful Eight is an excellent, thrilling and entertaining Western that combines terrific direction, a fantastic cast, a wonderful script, beautiful photography and a memorable score. All of those elements make The Hateful Eight an unforgettable film that is Quentin Tarantino at his best.

Since everyone is now talking about this movie we dont think the producers will loose any money at cinedate, and we tell you now why. we actually think this has created a new type of media hype that is more present in the news, radio and in the papers than starwars, and the promotional costs for this were free

If lets say 5% of the people planned to watch this movie at cinemadate, due to this media push we unintenionally created, we believe that now 40% of the people will watch this movie in the cinema cause everyone is talking about it and everyone wants to see the movie that created so much noise. this will push the cinema tickets sale for sure.

we really hope this helped out the producers in the longrun, so that the production costs are covered and more

we also think that the hateful 8 movie is the top candidate for the awards and will win by a mile over others thx tarantino for this wonderful movie

sorry it was around christmas we didnt plan that at all either, we wont do another movie before its cinedate, and we def wont go up to 40 as planned, we think we have done enough already.

cheers