And you thought you hated spoilers.
With Season Six of Game of Thrones picking up pace, HBO is turning its attention to the considerable number of illegal torrents, examples of online piracy and 'professional' spoilers looking to take the shine off their crown entertainment jewel.
In addition to sending out legal warnings to those IP addresses (an 'internet protocol' number unique to your computer's connection to an internet service provider) found to be illegally sharing the new series, HBO is apparently targeting one specific champion of spoilers: The Spanish Spoiler.
No? Us neither.
Jose Señaris, a 43-year-old doctor and script writer from Spain, has been posting 'spoiler' videos to YouTube under his username Frikidoctor, in which he divulges precise plot details before the TV episodes are aired. He told Reddit community Free Folk (it's a pretty complex web, but stick with us) that the details he discusses in his videos are sent to him by an unknown source:
CommentI am Frikidoctor, otherwise known as Spanish Youtube spoilers guy! AMA!HBO was understandably ticked off, and used YouTube's DMCA system (which allows a copyright holder to flag a takedown notice if they believe their product/content is being misused) to have several of Señaris's videos taken down.
However, after investigating the complaint, YouTube determined that, as Señaris wasn't actually showing any content from HBO's programmes, he wasn't doing anything illegal and restored the videos. Yet the intervention by HBO appears to have been potent enough to see Señaris change tack: in a discussion with Business Insider, he disclosed that he would no longer be sharing the spoilers sent by the anonymous source.
"I just have one thing to say: no more predictions in my channel," Señaris wrote. "Just chapter and teaser analyses, like every other fan channel. So now that the clips that were taken down are restored, HBO has nothing to worry about. I never thought that a really small channel like mine would gather so much attention, and I'm really overwhelmed."
Much like the plot lines of Game of Thrones, several questions remain: who is the unknown source of the links who was emailing Señaris? Will they pick a new YouTuber to leak the show's stories early? And should this occur, will HBO have any legal grounds to challenge the videos, given that they won't contain any footage or material from their programme?
It's almost as exciting as the books isn't it guys? Isn't it?
Guys? Where have you gone?
[Via: Business Insider]
