Aussie Man Offers HBO $10 Per 'Game Of Thrones' Episode He Pirates

Australians have been pirating Game Of Thrones for more than five seasons now, and it's not a trend that's set to change any time soon.

As series producers HBO ramp up their efforts to combat local piracy, the back-and-forth debate from both sides of the "to download or not to download?" moral quandary continues to stay pretty much stuck where it is, neither camp giving much ground to the other in the overall scheme of things.

A big part of that has been the staunch refusal on the part of Foxtel — which owns the sole rights to broadcast Game Of Thrones in Australia — to modify its business model, which presently forces Australian customers to pay a minimum of $46 a month — $26 for the basic Entertainment package, and a further $20 for the Drama package, which grants access to Showcase, on which GOT airs — for the privilege of, in some cases, watching one show. The Foxtel Play service isn't much better, where you're still looking at a $30 bill if you literally only buy Game Of Thrones, and not even in very high resolution (Foxtel Play maxes out at the sub-HD 480p, so at least you could watch it on a TV made in the mid-1990s).

We've been saying for years that poor distribution is a key reason for Aussies' continued defiance of the law in order to get their hands on GOT, and one man has taken that philosophy directly to HBO itself, offering the station a $10 direct payment for every episode of the series that he downloads illegally.

In the post, made on HBO's Facebook page, Tasmania man John Hyslop explained that, as an Australian citizen and avid Game Of Thrones fan, "each week I am faced with a difficult choice; I can either illegally download an episode or I can just not watch it".

"I list those as my only two options because we have a serious distribution problem in our country," he continued, pointing to a recent article from Kotaku in which writer Mark Serrels defended his habit of also pirating the fantasy series.

"Our only legal option for watching your show is Foxtel… as you may not have had any experience as a customer of their services, I will put it as concisely as possible: using Foxtel is like hitting up an all-you-can-eat banquet at a cheap Indian restaurant. It costs you $30 to get in when all you really wanted was the butter chicken, and your only memory of the whole experience is the burning sensation left on your ring the morning after."

What sets Hyslop's post apart from so many that have echoed his sentiments in the past is that, rather assume a position of entitled indignation, Hyolop offered a compromise to HBO — he'll continue pirating the show, but he'll happily give the company $10 directly per episode if they give him somewhere to deposit the funds (he wouldn't be the only one, we'd wager).

"In an effort to be reasonable and compensate your company fairly for the pleasure of watching your show I would like to offer you the following compromise: I will gladly pay HBO $10 an episode for every episode of your show that I download illegally; just provide me with a means by which to pay and I'll transfer the coin," he wrote.

"Alternatively, offer HBO Go in Australia, or literally mail me out a memory stick with each week's episode saved on it because even waiting for a memory stick to come by mail would be a better option than paying $30 a month for what is quite possibly the worst streaming service this side of West Africa."

HBO are yet to respond to Hyslop's offer, but you can read his full post below.