When people leak scripts, they're actually breaking the law. Sort of. More often than not a screenplay comes with something approaching an NDA, or nondisclosure agreement, which the reader has to sign in order to get access to the fat stack of paper (screenplay) that will hopefully lead to other fat stacks of paper (moneys). That means that there's a binding contract stating they won't spill the beans about any of the information contained forthwith, let alone release the full scripts into the wild. Nowadays the contracts and the scripts themselves are more likely to be sent via email, but up until semi-recently, they were still delivered the old fashioned way. Now the leap into digital hasn't necessarily put a stop to leaks - as, well, all the recent leaks will attest to; nowadays those hunting spoilers will just hack into shared servers or email accounts - but they're a lot easier to monitor than a clumsy post man who gets the wrong address, or an intern who doesn't know how to write a postage label properly. Last year the BBC accidentally sent out a DVD containing the series finale of Matt Smith's Doctor Who three weeks early, having to beg the lucky fans not to spoil anything after viewing. Which isn't the first spoiler-based snafu the BBC narrowly avoided. In 2003 people still actually cared about Ricky Gervais, and The Office Christmas Specials' scripts were being kept strictly under wraps. Or it was supposed to, before copies were delivered not to a BBC technician but a Essex beauty technician named Joanne Hiley, who thankfully didn't make good on her initial announcement to sell them to the highest tabloid bidder.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
