据美国Torrentfreak网站年度调查显示，HBO大热美剧《权力的游戏》是2012年盗版最多的剧集，其中有一集的全球非法下载量高达428万，比预计的美国观众总数还要高。紧随其后的是《嗜血法医》和《生活大爆炸》。该网站表示，虽然过去两年，美国、英国、墨西哥，以及乌克兰等国纷纷采取行动关闭或屏蔽了不少非法分享网站，但这两年的非法下载量仍有小幅上升。非法下载屡禁不止的原因主要是播出延迟和网络播放限制过多。就《权力的游戏》来说，HBO不允许Netflix等在线播放服务商播放该剧集，而只在其自有平台“HBO在线”播放，而只有HBO有线的订阅用户才能登录该平台观看剧集。

　　以下为2012年盗版美剧Top 10:

　　1. Game of Thrones 《权力的游戏》

　　2. Dexter 《嗜血法医》

　　3. The Big Bang Theory 《生活大爆炸》

　　4. How I Met Your Mother 《老爸老妈浪漫史》

　　5. Breaking Bad 《绝命毒师》

　　6. The Walking Dead 《行尸走肉》

　　7. Homeland 《国土安全》

　　8. House 《豪斯医生》

　　9. Fringe 《危机边缘》

　　10. Revolution 《灭世》

　　Game of Thrones has emerged as the most-pirated TV show over the internet this year, according to news site Torrentfreak's latest annual survey.

　　Game of Thrones has emerged as the most-pirated TV show over the internet this year, according to news site Torrentfreak's latest annual survey.

　　It said one episode of the series had racked up 4,280,000 illegal global downloads - slightly more than its estimated US television audience.

　　The site said that overall there had been a "small increase" in the amount of illegal sharing.

　　That was despite a "levelling out" of the activity the previous two years.

　　The rise also followed increased efforts to shut down or block websites providing access to copyright infringing material.

　　Investigations by the US, Mexican and Ukrainian authorities led to two of the best known file-sharing services disappearing earlier this year - digital locker service Megaupload and Bit Torrent link site Demonoid.

　　The administrators of Newzbin2 - a site which aggregated links to illegally copied material sourced from Usenet forums - also abandoned the operation after the UK courts forced internet service providers (ISPs) to block access.

　　In addition, UK-based Surfthechannel went offline after its owner went on trial for "facilitating" copyright infringement - a crime which resulted in him receiving a four year prison sentence.

　　Several countries ISPs have also been ordered to block The Pirate Bay, although political activists at Europe's Pirate Parties continue to offer proxy-based workarounds.

　　Despite all the closures, one episode of of Game of Thrones racked up 4,280,000 illegal global downloads, according to Torrentfreak. That was slightly more than its estimated US television audience.

　　The level of piracy may be linked to the fact that the TV company behind it - HBO - does not allow Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or other US streaming services access to its programs. It instead restricts them to its own HBO Go online product, which is only available to its cable subscribers.

　　Outside the US, Torrentfreak noted that Australia was responsible for a disproportionate amount of illegal copies of Game of Thrones and suggested this may have been because episodes were broadcast locally a week later than in the US.

　　Torrentfreak's editor acknowledged that, despite his findings, HBO might still want to keep its current model.

　　"Not all of the people who pirate do it because it's free - availability is also a big factor," Ernesto Van Der Sar told the BBC.

　　"Most of the titles in the top 10 list are behind paywalls and are not distributed very widely. If TV companies offered them online to a broader audience, piracy would be lower than it is now.

　　"But I'm not sure that would be best for their revenues as they rely on expensive subscriptions which they still sell a lot of. If they allowed people to download individual episodes from Netflix, for example, they might not make as much money."

　　Most pirated TV shows of 2012

　　1. Game of Thrones

　　2. Dexter

　　3. The Big Bang Theory

　　4. How I Met Your Mother

　　5. Breaking Bad

　　6. The Walking Dead

　　7. Homeland

　　8. House

　　9. Fringe

　　10. Revolution