Just how upset was Marvel at having its big San Diego Comic-Con news about a Guardians of The Galaxy movie spoiled by reports on the Internet weeks ahead of time? Apparently upset enough to have "an independent security consultant" try and find the source of the leak, and reach out to the Internet to do so.Latino Review, the site that broke the news that Marvel was planning a Guardians of The Galaxy movie to follow Captain America: The Winter Soldier, has reported that it's received an email from a consultant retained by Marvel to find out who was leaking information about its plans to sources online. Coming from a Marvel.com address, the email read in part:

I am currently conducting an investigation on Marvel's behalf regarding the dissemination of confidential, non-public information concerningIron Man 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy. The executives at Marvel are extremely upset regarding the release of this information and they have instructed me to find you and ascertain how you received it. My goal is to accomplish this in a quiet manner. I do not want to see you or anyone else get into trouble nor do I want to see anyone's career be tarnished because of this. However I am very confident that through your efforts and mine, we will be able to work through this together.

Promising to "make it worth [the] effort" if the site revealed its source, the email went from Good Cop to Bad Cop in an attempt to ensure co-operation, explaining that "I do not want to see you or anyone else get into trouble. That would be a lose-lose for everyone. I would hope that you are now realizing that this is a very serious matter and the consequences will be quite severe if I do not find out how you obtained the Iron Man 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy information." It went on to suggest that "if we do not work together, I will have no choice but to take this investigation to the next level and I will not stop until this investigation is completed."

As the site notes, the end of the email contained a disclaimed that "Nothing contained in this email shall (a) be considered a legally binding agreement, amendment or modification of any agreement with Marvel, each of which requires a fully executed agreement to be received by Marvel or (b) be deemed approval of any product, packaging, advertising or promotion material, which may only come from Marvel's legal department."

In response, the site's Da7e wrote that he wouldn't be responding to the email outside of making it public. "I genuinely love my Marvel and their properties. I've seen ALL their movies, even the now burnt Fantastic Four, why do you have to come out with 'I don't want to see anyone's career be tarnished because of this'?" he wrote, adding that "A representative of my favorite comics house just stepped into my life with no legal authority to demand anything and threatened my career for doing my job well."

Clearly, we should expect things to be taken to the mysterious "next level" as see what happens from there. It'll be interesting to see whether or not the title of a movie that a studio's own boss has teased on multiple occasions can really be considered confidential information, should things come to a legal standoff...

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