Fantasy fiction book to series Game of Thrones is among one of the most illegally downloaded TV shows ever, and now under new rules, penalties for illegally downloading such content could land criminals up to 10 years in prison.
Around nine months ago the UK government took further steps to clamp down on internet piracy and pornography, but in the same year Game of Thrones was the most illegally pirated TV show.
The Digital Economy Act now penalises up to five times more from the previous two years prison sentence, and classifies online pirating, such as torrenting, as a criminal offence.
In a letter to the Open Rights Group, the government confirmed such sentences would only apply to the most severe of criminal piracy cases. So anything like reposting a picture, which is technically copyright infringement, would not likely incur criminal charges, but the streaming or downloading of thousands of films and tv shows illegally could be very serious.
As to pornography, sites are being told they must require age verification (18+) and the plan is to implement full age verification across all sites by April 2018.
