Torrenting Game of Thrones? HBO Has Something To Say

Brace yourselves pirates, letters are coming. HBO's anti-piracy partner IP Echelon has sent thousand of warnings to ISPs urging them to take action against alleged pirates, reports TorrentFreak.com. The IP-addresses of BitTorrent users who were caught sharing recent episodes of Game of Thrones were forwarded to ISPs (Internet Service Providers), who were then requested to contact the subscriber assigned to the IP to take "steps to prevent further downloading or sharing of unauthorized content and additional infringement notices".

Below is an excerpt of the letter

Kena warning letter. LoL. Image: TorrentFreak.com

These scare tactics are nothing new and ISPs are not legally obligated to forward the emails to the IP-addresses, but now HBO has added a pen pal request to the end of their email saying, “We also encourage you to inform the subscriber that HBO programming can easily be watched and streamed on many devices legally by adding HBO to the subscriber’s television package."

404 Torrents Not Found

That was quick. Image: TorrentFreak.com

On top of this friend request, HBO is also aggressively targeting torrent sites with takedown requests. Hundreds of links have been removed and in some cases, links were removed within minutes after they appear online. Well, you know what they say... *psst* "hail Hydra."

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Hail Hydra."

What does this mean for Malaysia?

Well, it just means we can watch the heavily censored, watered-down, kid-friendly joke of an episode of Game of Thrones that airs in Malaysia on HBO at 9am Mondays. 9am? Really? Wow... That's actually quite impressive. Anyway, now that torrenting the best television show on the planet may not be an option for much longer, are you going to watch it on regular TV? Let us know in the comments.