BBC Subpoenas Microsoft To Hunt Down Doctor Who Leaker

Though showrunner Chris Chibnall and his team are trying their best to keep as much about Doctor Who‘s upcoming eleventh season a secret as possible, the show’s unfortunately been hit by some significant leaks. Back in June, for instance, the first full scene of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor surfaced online before the BBC got a hold of it.

As previously reported, the corporation’s not happy with the leak in their operation and is taking the matter to court. And now, a new development in the case has come to light thanks to TorrentFreak, who’ve got hold of legal documents which reveal what the BBC’s next big move is.

Apparently, the broadcaster has filed a DMCA subpoena at a federal court in Washington aimed at Microsoft. The leaked footage was stored and shared via OneDrive, so the BBC’s requesting that the international conglomerate track down and reveal the individual responsible for the account that posted the file. As for how the clip got out, the BBC says the footage was stolen from its studio.

According to the subpoena, the BBC’s ordering Microsoft to reveal: “any name, account name, address, telephone number, email address, birth date, profile photo, device information, browser information, location information, information from others (e.g., Facebook or Google+) and time posted.”

This follows a similar measure the BBC made last month when they took out another subpoena on Tapatalk, the forum app on which the leaked clip was shared. We don’t know the results of this case, but it seems that it wasn’t fruitful, leaving the corporation to turn to Plan B and target Microsoft instead.

Though this is unfortunate for the BBC, it shouldn’t affect morale for season 11 too much. Speaking of which, we still don’t know when Doctor Who is set to return to our screens, but our best guess is October, or sometime around there. As always, though, we’ll keep you posted when we learn more.