TorrentFreak has discovered that BitTorrent pirates reside within the likes of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fox Entertainment and NBC Universal despite their extreme legal efforts to stamp out BitTorrent-related pirated content. TorrentFreak stumbled across this revelation after pumping a special BitTorrent detection website, the Russian-based YouHaveDownloaded, full of Hollywood's IP addresses.
According to the tracker website, Culver City-based Sony Pictures Entertainment has downloaded the new Conan the Barbarian movie (2011), "Lonely Boy" by the Black Eyed Peas and a handful of other pirated files. TorrentFreak points out that YouHaveDownloaded only tracks a small percentage of all public BitTorrent downloads, so there's a good chance Sony employees are leeching even more illegal content from the BitTorrent highways.
The Russian tracking site also reveals that NBC Universal employees residing in Fort Lauderdale have downloaded a DVD rip of Cowboys and Aliens, the entire first season of "Game of Thrones," some trance music and much, much more. Valley Village, California-based Fox Entertainment only shows one downloaded file: Super 8 (2011).
In addition to Hollywood, TorrentFreak also investigated other institutions including Google's own Corporate office in New York which produced a long list of warez -- even a pirated copy of Windows 7. The Church of God was also investigated, but was discovered to have only downloaded TV shows whereas music royalty collecting agency Buma/Stemra reportedly downloaded an episode of Entourage and a copy of Battlefield 3.
Buma/Stemra later claimed that its IP address was "spoofed." Sure it was.