HBO Is Coming After Australian Game Of Thrones Pirates

HBO is finally beginning to mobilise against Game Of Thrones pirates with thousands of copyright infringement warnings sent to people suspected of illegally downloading the show. They have also been supplying internet service providers with the IP-addresses of BitTorrent users. Here’s what you need to know.

BitTorrent blog TorrentFreaks is reporting a huge upsurge in anti-piracy activity from Game Of Thrones creator HBO. The company has been sending cease-and-desist letters to suspected pirates, along with warnings to torrent sites requesting them to remove all torrents of the show.

“While HBO generally seems quite cavalier when the piracy topic comes up, the company is actively trying to contain the fallout behind the scenes,” explains the blog.

“Since the start of the new season the company’s anti-piracy partner IP Echelon has sent thousands of warnings to ISPs, urging them to take action against alleged pirates. The warning mails in question include the IP-addresses of BitTorrent users who were caught sharing recent episodes of Game of Thrones, and the notifications HBO asks the ISPs to alert the associated subscribers to prevent further infringements.”

Here is the HBO warning that was allegedly sent to dnsslave.com:

HBO has also been stepping up its war against torrent sites via legal takedown requests. This has resulted in hundreds of links being removed from KickassTorrents, Torrentz and other popular file-sharing sites. Reports TorrentFreaks:

A search on KickassTorrents shows that the most popular torrent releases for the first two episodes have been removed. Similarly, a search for Game of Thrones on Torrentz notes that links to the 100 torrents with the most peers are all gone.

If you’re finding Game Of Thrones torrents harder to come by compared to last season, this is likely the reason why.

So do Aussie pirates need to worry? The copyright laws in our country haven’t changed, so you can rest assured that you’re not going to receive any hefty fines in the mail from HBO. But be aware that the company probably has your dubious activities on record. Winter is coming.

[Via TorrentFreaks]