NEITHER love nor loyalty can change a person's nature.

Especially when it comes to hit HBO series, Game of Thrones.

Australians are the world’s worst offenders when it comes to illegally downloading hit HBO series.

People from Sydney and Melbourne are the worst offenders, according to TorrentFreak.

Each episode of the show is downloaded three million times, the BitTorrent blog said, and Australians make up the vast majority of torrents.

“If we look at the top countries where Game of Thrones is downloaded, Australia comes out on top with 10.1% of all downloads (based on one episode),” TorrentFreak wrote on its blog.

Sydneysiders account for three per cent of downloads, followed by Melbournians with 2.9 per cent.

The website blamed the delay in airing as the main reason for piracy.

“In Australia, for example, fans of the show have to wait a week before they can see the latest episode. So it’s hardly a surprise that some people are turning to BitTorrent instead,” the website said.

Commentors agreed. “It airs earlier in US than other countries. We want it asap, they can't deliver that,” wrote user “Vegard Bellika”.

Commenter Lardman (Jaeryl) said advertising and cost drove people to download illegally.

“No ads, 1080p (meaning the torrents play in high-definition). Two things Australia doesn't get 'til the Blu-ray release, which only comes ages later, at an unreasonable price. The entire season for $60+ wouldn't be unheard of,” he wrote.

Last month ZDNet reported Aussie pirates were being caught out by tweeting about season two of Game of Thrones before it aired in Australia.

“Australia has arguably one of the highest rates of TV copyright infringement in the world, fuelled by intransigent content owners and television networks that hold off airing programs for weeks or months at a time,” wrote ZDNet journalist, Josh Taylor.

Earlier this year internet service provider iiNet won a major legal battle over whether it should be held responsible for its customers downloading content illegally.

CEO Michael Malone said increasing the availability of lawful, online content in a more timely, affordable and reasonably priced manner, was the best method of protecting content owners’ copyright.

However, Australian Federation against Copyright Theft (AFACT) managing director Neil Gane disagrees.

“Game of Thrones episode one of season two was released in Australia five days after it was in the US, but the fact that some consumers can get this for free is what migrates them towards illegally downloading it, Mr Gane told News.com.au.

“The Australian Intellectual Property Foundations recently found that 74 per cent of illegal downloaders said the primary reason that motivated them was content was free.

“No business model in the world can compete with free.”