Whatever happened to "we do not negotiate with terrorists!"?
In this case, HBO is not only negotiating but PAYING. Big time! Last month, hackers who claim to have breached the networks' system and reportedly stole data from HBO including "Game Of Thrones" scripts, leaked those scripts online before the August 6th episode aired.
According to leaked correspondences between HBO executives, HBO is working to get a $250,000 "bounty payment" to a hacker or group called "Mr. Smith".