On the eve of the worldwide simultaneous broadcast of the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who episode The Mirror reports another lost episode has resurfaced, the complete 7 episode run of "Marco Polo" with first Doctor, William Hartnell. It's missing the audio but apparently the BBC has that and can painstakingly restore it.
The ironic part of this whole shebang is that as the biggest attempt to share new content and reduce piracy is about to take place the only reason this episode still exists is because an enterprising and way ahead of his time individual decided to take his 16mm camera and film the episodes off his TV. Yep, "Marco Polo" is still around because of piracy.
I'd be interested in finding out if this is the earliest known evidence of TV show piracy. Since the episodes screened in 1964 it is pretty unlikely this was all that widespread. I also expect the current rights holders to track down the budding pirates family in order to sue for damages.
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