HBO is monitoring Game of Thrones pirates

The seventh season of the iconic Game of Thrones series began last week and, as night follows day, it was only natural that the episode appeared online shortly afterwards.

However, it wasn’t just the pirates that were looking out for the episode. HBO’s anti-piracy partner IP Echelon was also keeping an eye out. The anti-piracy outfit began to send warnings out to the Internet Service Providers of the alleged pirates that had used BitTorrent to download or share the episode.

Copyright infringement warning

The warnings contained the IP addresses of the alleged pirates along with a strong copyright infringement warning.

‘We have information leading us to believe that the IP address xx.xxx.xxx.xxx was used to download or share Game of Thrones without authorization (additional details are listed below). HBO owns the copyright or exclusive rights to Game of Thrones, and the unauthorized download or distribution constitutes copyright infringement. Downloading unauthorized or unknown content is also a security risk for computers, devices, and networks.’

‘As the owner of the IP address, HBO requests that xxx Communications immediately contact the subscriber who was assigned the IP address at the date and time below with the details of this notice, and take the proper steps to prevent further downloading or sharing of unauthorized content and additional infringement notices.’

Last year similar warnings were sent to the alleged Game of Thrones pirates Internet Service Providers. However, whilst HBO does know the IP address of the alleged pirates, it would need a court order to uncover their identities.

Tidman Legal is a firm of specialist intellectual property lawyers based in Edinburgh.