If you downloaded and shared those leaked ‘Game of Thrones’ episodes last week, you might be on HBO’s hit list.
The cable network is sending out notices to nearly anybody that watched any of the four leaked season five episodes. There is one group in particular that HBO seems to be focused on.
While most piracy occurred through BitTorrent, HBO seemed mostly concerned with a few dozen people who watched a shoddy stream via Twitter’s Periscope. Behind the scenes, however, BitTorrent pirates were targeted as well.
Over the past week HBO sent out a flurry of takedown notices to those who shared the controversial leaks in public. TF has seen several notices, which all come in the standard format. []
Now HBO doesn’t know the identity of the offenders, there are no real legal risks as of right now, according to reports. It would be up to the ISP to take the next step and point out the culprits, but this is to serve as a warning to stop others from downloading the episodes.
Here’s the notice being passed around:
“1. Contact the subscriber who has engaged in the conduct described above and take steps to prevent the subscriber from further downloading or uploading HBO content without authorization.”
In addition, ISPs may want to take additional measures such as disconnecting the accounts of repeat infringers.
“2. Take appropriate action against the account holder under your Abuse Policy/Terms of Service Agreement. ()”
There is also additional information attached such as the IP address and infringing file names. This is nothing new for HBO, but with Game of Thrones audience growing every episode, they are being a lot more vigilant this time around.
So if you’re downloading torrents, you may want to pass on downloading ‘Game of Thrones’ episodes because, HBO is tracking you down.
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