A new academic study counterintuitively concludes that online piracy can boost revenue for some films. By analyzing years of box office data, as well as upload details from The Pirate Bay, researchers found that high-quality leaks of ”spectacle” movies, such as Marvel blockbusters, appear to increase theater attendance. For ”story-driven” films, however, the opposite is true.

In his pitch to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders to accept Paramount Skydance’s $108 billion hostile takeover bid, David Ellisonhas repeatedly argued that European regulators will never allow Netflix to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. In his Dec. 10 letter to WBD shareholders, Ellison said the Paramount buyout deal offers “a much shorter and more certain path to completion,” insisting that the European Commission and the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority would balk at allowing the world’s largest streamer to swallow one of its few global competitors.

CyberVolk, a pro-Russian hacktivist crew, is back after months of silence with a new ransomware service. There’s some bad news and some good news here.

First, the bad news: the CyberVolk 2.x (aka VolkLocker) ransomware-as-a-serviceoperation that launched in late summer. It’s run entirely through Telegram, which makes it very easy for affiliates that aren’t that tech savvy to lock files and demand a ransom payment.

CyberVolk’s soldiers can use the platform’s built-in automation to generate payloads, coordinate ransomware attacks, and manage their illicit business operations, conducting everything through Telegram.

HBO Max has unveiled a short trailer for its 2026 TV series slate, with never-been-seen footage from Euphoria, House of the Dragon, Lanterns and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

“There’s no turning back,” Zendaya as Rue Bennett in Euphoria season 3, while kneeling and praying in a church pew, says at one point in the near-two minute collection of brand spots. In another new clip, Myha’la as Harper Stern in season 4 of Industry declares amid another apparent trading floor confrontation: “Do you know why I do this? Because I enjoy it. And I’m fucking good at it!”