HBO sends out thousands of warnings to Game of Thrones file sharers

A day before the latest season of the blockbuster 'Game of Thrones' launched on HBO, pirates took the wind out of the company's sails, leaking the first four episodes of the season online ripped from a review screener.

Within hours, the episodes were downloaded over a million times.

While HBO used to be relatively nonchalant about piracy and HBO Go password sharing, the company certainly took offense to this latest leak. HBO has sent out thousands of warnings to file sharers via its anti-piracy partner IP-Echelon, demanding ISPs tell their subscribers to cease their activities.

Reads the alert given to the ISP: "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. 2. Take appropriate action against the account holder under your Abuse Policy/Terms of Service Agreement."

HBO does not know the identities of the thousands of IP addresses, nor does it appear to be searching for any but it does appear that the company is looking to dissuade potential pirates for the future.

Source:
Ernesto

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2015 19:56

glecas

So in other words, pirates help make the show more popular and give them FREE advertising.

22.4.2015 23:40 #1

harrynutz

Originally posted by glecas: So in other words, pirates help make the show more popular and give them FREE advertising. - thus expanding the viewer base --> upping the ratings --> making more $$ for the network. If anything, HBO should be happy. Long live pirates!

23.4.2015 01:50 #2

mscritsm

Originally posted by harrynutz:
- thus expanding the viewer base --> upping the ratings --> making more $$ for the network. If anything, HBO should be happy. Long live pirates! Your statement makes no sense. HBO doesn't care about ratings. They only care about subscriptions. They don't advertise, so there's nobody to charge more when the ratings do go up.

The piracy only matters to the extent that some people who pirate the shows might otherwise subscribe.

23.4.2015 02:10 #3

glecas

Originally posted by mscritsm: Originally posted by harrynutz:
- thus expanding the viewer base --> upping the ratings --> making more $$ for the network. If anything, HBO should be happy. Long live pirates! Your statement makes no sense. HBO doesn't care about ratings. They only care about subscriptions. They don't advertise, so there's nobody to charge more when the ratings do go up.

The piracy only matters to the extent that some people who pirate the shows might otherwise subscribe. Just take books and libraries as an example... way back in history when the first libraries was gonna open to offer free books to the public, the same outrage was expressed by the companies: "Books that people can read for free!?!? That's crazy!!!"... and yet, here we are in a far future with all our internet, scanners and printers - and still authors of popular litterature have the possibility to become rich and famous like anybody else. We have accepted this fate for books. So time to accept it now for music and films as well.

23.4.2015 02:25 #4

Estuansis

Well, I'm never subscribing to HBO, ever. So how do I watch this show? I'ma just pirate it. If they wanna hit me with a million dollar lawsuit, they can go for it. Would love to see them get a single cent out of me. I can assure you, it'd be money I never knew about.

23.4.2015 04:57 #5

thebox

I got hit with a notice from my ISP provider 1 day after downloading the first 4 leaked GoT episodes.
Funny thing is, all my ISP's email had to say was that as of January 2015, new laws BLAH BLAH BLAH.
Below in the original email was the IP-Echelon HBO address and nothing else.
I contacted my ISP and they said they didn't know what was downloaded but for future reference, hide through Proxy or VPN.
In other words, be a good boy but be a bad boy through Anonymity lol.

ahhhhh!!! cobras

23.4.2015 09:23 #6

glecas

Originally posted by thebox: I got hit with a notice from my ISP provider 1 day after downloading the first 4 leaked GoT episodes.
Funny thing is, all my ISP's email had to say was that as of January 2015, new laws BLAH BLAH BLAH.
Below in the original email was the IP-Echelon HBO address and nothing else.
I contacted my ISP and they said they didn't know what was downloaded but for future reference, hide through Proxy or VPN.
In other words, be a good boy but be a bad boy through Anonymity lol. That's why you should use encrypted downloads or Hide behind proxy. But most proxy solutions will slow down your speed, so try to find encrypted sources.

Still it's silly how the companies can scare or threaten the ISP's to scare and threaten their clients....

23.4.2015 09:29 #7

Mr-Movies

Originally posted by mscritsm: Originally posted by harrynutz:
- thus expanding the viewer base --> upping the ratings --> making more $$ for the network. If anything, HBO should be happy. Long live pirates! Your statement makes no sense. HBO doesn't care about ratings. They only care about subscriptions. They don't advertise, so there's nobody to charge more when the ratings do go up.

The piracy only matters to the extent that some people who pirate the shows might otherwise subscribe.
You are just wrong since rating is how they get and keep subscribers. If they didn't have good ratings who would subscribe to they're service, talk about obtuse!

Now Jeff isn't going to subscribe to them ever so there are those that ratings doesn't matter but that is an extreme minority.

23.4.2015 09:33 #8

Julio_Bro

Although the situation promotes the show, it doesn't bring $ to HBO, most will not increase cable/sat cost just for one series. What they should do is, through HBO GO, charge a small fee per episode, say $1, or for the whole season, say $5; that should satisfy many fans and most people who like to watch in high quality.

23.4.2015 09:43 #9

thebox

Originally posted by glecas: Originally posted by thebox: I got hit with a notice from my ISP provider 1 day after downloading the first 4 leaked GoT episodes.
Funny thing is, all my ISP's email had to say was that as of January 2015, new laws BLAH BLAH BLAH.
Below in the original email was the IP-Echelon HBO address and nothing else.
I contacted my ISP and they said they didn't know what was downloaded but for future reference, hide through Proxy or VPN.
In other words, be a good boy but be a bad boy through Anonymity lol. That's why you should use encrypted downloads or Hide behind proxy. But most proxy solutions will slow down your speed, so try to find encrypted sources.

Still it's silly how the companies can scare or threaten the ISP's to scare and threaten their clients.... I'm trying to find a good free solution as I'm limited to funds but am open to suggestions.

ahhhhh!!! cobras

23.4.2015 09:44 #10

glecas

Originally posted by Julio_Bro: Although the situation promotes the show, it doesn't bring $ to HBO, most will not increase cable/sat cost just for one series. What they should do is, through HBO GO, charge a small fee per episode, say $1, or for the whole season, say $5; that should satisfy many fans and most people who like to watch in high quality. Agreed. Instead of trying to "fight" piracy they should offer competetive alternatives.. just look at what spotify or other online music provider did with music. Even though most of my friends are "pirates" when it comes to movies and games, I now know very few friends who actually download illegal music. Almost all of my friends have gone "legit" and now subscribe to cheap flat-rate online music services.

23.4.2015 09:46 #11

Mr-Movies

No doubt communication companies are way too greedy and over charge us which is why more people are turning off, not enough people but things are swinging that direction. Years ago I went to pay tv so that I could get away from commercials, now they are double dipping as I'm still paying for TV but now getting commercials, not good.

23.4.2015 10:01 #12

glecas

Originally posted by Mr-Movies: No doubt communication companies are way too greedy and over charge us which is why more people are turning off, not enough people but things are swinging that direction. Years ago I went to pay tv so that I could get away from commercials, now they are double dipping as I'm still paying for TV but now getting commercials, not good. Yeah that sort of thing really makes me mad... If it's free I can understand the need for ads. But if I pay a high price for something, it should be ad-free. This makes me think of my ex who used to buy expensive womens magaziens and yet every other page was a full-page ad. In reality, they could just publish that for free and still make profits. In europe the biggest and most read newspaper is called METRO. And it's free, available on streets, busstops etc. Beacause they get their income from ads - and because it is free, NO other newspaper has more readers than them = profit.

23.4.2015 10:04 #13

hearme0

23.4.2015 11:50 #14

YummyCS

Does anyone really not know about Game of Thrones? Saying better ratings helps HBO is like saying getting free Coke out of a broken machine helps Coke spread the word.

23.4.2015 12:14 #15

Jemborg

Originally posted by Mr-Movies: No doubt communication companies are way too greedy and over charge us which is why more people are turning off, not enough people but things are swinging that direction. Years ago I went to pay tv so that I could get away from commercials, now they are double dipping as I'm still paying for TV but now getting commercials, not good. Yeah, it's bad in Oz now too, worse than free-to-air now I understand.

Seems like the fair solution is reasonably (cheapish) priced subscriptions to clean on-demand services and let them target me with ads in other ways... which I can block. :)

At least SBS On Demand (free) has only one ad at the beginning of a program. Lot of great docos on that one. (You might need a local proxy to get it.)

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

DSE VZ300-
Zilog Z80 CPU, 32KB RAM (16K+16K cartridge), video processor 6847, 2KB video RAM, 16 colours (text mode), 5.25" FDD

23.4.2015 13:19 #16

Mr-Movies

I've thought of doing that as I'm getting really tired of paying extreme dollars for a lot of crap. I did hookup an OTA and I have Netflix so maybe SBS and there are some others is the way to go I can certainly live with one commercial here and there. I would hope I wouldn't need a proxy but we are censored here now way too much so I'm sure that will be required, but no biggie there.

24.4.2015 10:35 #17

ThePastor

This is still just lip service by HBO. It is still fairly simple to find this for download.
There are many things that are much harder to find than "Game of Thrones". I feel like this is just HBO trying to appear as if they are doing something when in reality they "get it". The power of the "most pirated show" is strong and they secretly still support that.

Oh, Im sorry... Did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours?

24.4.2015 15:45 #18

DXR88

Downloading all seasons now.....I'm not even going to watch them i just want to piss HBO off.

after the first 2 seasons it just turned into a who's gonna fuck who this episode. Black Sails is getting just as bad.

26.4.2015 14:25 #19

Mr-Movies

That certainly hasn't been the issue in the last two seasons but ALL series get ridiculous, especially Walking Dead! So I get it....

26.4.2015 21:43 #20

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