Fans of HBO series "Game of Thrones", which is based on George R R Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire", were thrilled to learn that four episodes of Season 5 was leaked and distributed on torrent sites as they were eager to learn the fate of the seven kingdoms. The leaked episodes were downloaded more than a million times.
This act of was billed as one of the most, "prominent piracy cases in TV history". The TV show has been one of the most pirated show over the past three years, reported TorrentFreak.
"Game of Thrones" fans had to wait for the Season 5 after a gap of almost a year since Season 4.
The leak occurred via review screener and eventually found its way to public sites like The Pirate Bay, RARBG, and KickassTorrents.
HBO is aware of this and has warned Torrent users of "appropriate action" if they indulge in any uploading and downloading activity related to the show in future. Previously, it had issued numerous takedown notices for users who shared the leaks on public sites.
The instruction has come via IP-Echelon, HBO's anti-piracy partner, where internet providers will be alerted to account holders if they indulge in infringement of IP-address.
The instructions state that internet providers must take "appropriate action against the account holder" who abuses the agreement. Repeated infringers must have their accounts disconnected, it stated.
However, since HBO was unable to know the identity of the pirates, it could not take any legal action.
Nevertheless it hoped that these warnings will avert users from doing the same in future.
TorrentFreak also noted that the notices from The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) were not new and not all warnings were effective. The company has reportedly been sending them for different shows that were pirated and they do not get much consideration.
