It’s widely debated as ever, but one fact still remains – piracy is as popular as ever, proven again as hit show Game of Thrones has just broken piracy records.
Life can be hard out there for an avid television junkie, harder than the mean streets of Westeros, even. Never have to fear being pushed out of a window just for knowing something you shouldn’t, it’s unlikely that you’ll require the fierce warrior training of the Dothraki and hopefully you’ll never have to brave the harsh and bitter winds that lie north of The Wall, but boy is it difficult to get your hands on new episodes.
No one knows this tale more than fans of Game of Thrones who, in pursuit of legal means of watching their favourite TV show, have unfortunately come up short. Complaints were hollered from every rooftop when the first season of the popular show of kings, queens and rightful heirs wasn’t available on disc for months, until a boxset was finally released just a few weeks before the premiere of the second season. Once again, those looking for a legal way to watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones, its season three premiere, are hard on their luck too. This is why many Game of Thrones fans have taken to illegal, piracy means.
The season three premiere of Game of Thrones wasn’t available for viewing (legally) for a few days after it aired on American television and so many people pirated the episode that it broke piracy records. Piracy (specifically, ‘”torrenting”) works by connecting a ‘swarm’ network of people. One group of ‘leechers’ downloads the show from the source, while others, called ‘seeders’, upload the show en masse, directly to those who want it. Torrent Freak, a site that tracks both BitTorrent and torrenting activities say that according to their data, just mere hours after the show was made available for download, 163,088 people were seeding the episode while another 52,786 people were leeching it.
These impressive figures were then completely blown out the water not even a week later by the fact that, according to Torrent Freak, by just the second day of the Game of Thrones season three premiere being online, over 1 million people had downloaded and shared it.
Despite not all of them paying for the premium TV subscription that allows people to view the show on TV as it airs, Game of Thrones, arguably HBO’s standout programme, is in no danger of losing its Westeros house of fans.
Source : Torrent Freak
Read more on walyou, Game of Thrones House Sigils For Internet Websites, Gingerbread Winterfell: Winter Is Coming, And It’s Delicious
