Game of Thrones Season 6 is out and its all shades of interesting. The show which airs on Home Box Office is one of the most popular in the world with millions of people tuning into to watch the battle to take over Kings Landing. Game of Thrones has also taken over the iron thrones as the most pirated show ever. Last year during its season 5, an episode was illegally downloaded 2.2 million times worldwide in less than 12 hours. The season finale was illegally downloaded 1.5 Million times in 8 hours with numbers swelling over 10 million times as of the last count.
HBO has been facing difficulties in availing the Game of Thrones both online and through cable/satellite in some countries, meaning the only choice for fans of the show is to torrent. In Kenya, you can watch the show 24 hours after it airs on DSTV Explora meaning fans get to watch it around 2:30 am on Tuesday. HBO and its parent Time Warner were initially receptive, saying it is a good thing to be the most pirated TV show in the world saying its better than winning an Emmy as it creates awareness.
HBO is now taking steps aimed at tackling pirating of the show by sending out warnings to pirates of their copyright infringement. HBO has also requested torrent sites to remove Game of Thrones torrents besides asking Pirates to get a HBO subscription. The company has hired an anti-piracy firm Echelon to lead the anti-piracy efforts. Torrent freak shared the email warning from HBO as seen below
This is aggressive from HBO and it will be interesting to see if it eventually pays off.
