BHUBANESWAR: The first episode of Game of Thrones (Season 8) is finally here. Fans worldwide were glued to their television screens during the premiere of the concluding season. However, things were not as simple for all the fans of course.
According to a recent report from a file sharing site TorrentFreak, GoT leads the list of pirated shows on the planet. At one point, one day after the show’s Season 7 premiere, over 1,30,000 people were sharing various torrents of the episode.
For Indian fans of the show, the only way to view the uncensored version of the show is through a premium account in Hotstar. One needs to subscribe to the streaming site for premium English content. As a certain amount of money is required to do that, a certain percentage of the fans download the episodes illegally from torrent sites.
This might be a really bad idea regardless of how much you love GoT. HBO has decided to take some action against those who try distributing the episodes illegally. The extensive popularity of Game of Thrones has provided HBO with a lot of incentive to protect its copyrighted content. They are doing this by sending an infringement notice to various Internet Service Providers.
If being on the hit list of HBO wasn’t enough, you may be attacked by ransom ware hackers. New tools on the black market help hackers to distribute malware through torrent files in exchange for a fee. Popular torrent files are packaged with malicious coding and then uploaded for unsuspecting users to download.
These files may delete or expose sensitive information from one’s system. These hackers demand money from their victims in return of safeguarding their content. Orissa Post interacted with a few fans of the show to delve deeper into their awareness of the threat.
Sunil Kumar Pradhan, a software engineer from the city, said, “I am aware of the threat. I am proud to say that I haven’t watched a single episode of the show illegally. The show is one of the greatest that was ever made. Hence makers of the show deserve to reap the monetary benefits. I urge fans from all over the city to subscribe to Hotstar and watch it hassle free.”
Another city fan who requested to be anonymous said, “Why waste money with paid subscription when you can watch it from torrent sites? The root of the problem is with the makers of the show who fail to check piracy. As for us, we are easily tempted to view it free of cost.”
A similar fan said, “I see no problem in watching the show on torrent sites. I have been engaged in downloading games, shows and movies from torrent since childhood. I have never been caught. If you ask me, it is no crime at all. How can it be a crime to download content online?”
Our interaction with the fans clearly shows that while some were aware of the dangers involved in torrenting, others chose to ignore it. While it is understandable that fans can hardly control their urge to watch GoT illegally, we urge them to exercise caution especially in the latest season of the show.