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HBO has started removing torrents and notifying downloaders, as the premium cable network ramps up efforts to curb piracy of its hugely popular 'Game of Thrones' TV show.

Piracy of the hit TV show hit another peak as the new season premiered in late April.

HBO's official attitude towards piracy has always been a bit more relaxed compared to other rights-holders, but it appears that behind the talk of not caring about piracy, the cable network is actually trying hard to stop the rapid flow of pirated downloads.

The company has started sending out warning notices to ISPs to ask them to take action against downloaders. HBO is also asking ISPs to inform users of the legal ways in which they can watch HBO programming.

"As the owner of the IP address, HBO requests that [ISP] immediately contact the subscriber who was assigned the IP address at the date and time below with the details of this notice, and take the proper steps to prevent further downloading or sharing of unauthorized content and additional infringement notices," reads the notice.

ISPs are not obligated to take any action, although most choose to at least forward the warning notice to users.

HBO's more direct actions may be having more of an effect. The company has started sending DMCA notices to torrent download sites like KickassTorrents and Torrentz to remove torrent links. HBO's anti-piracy partners have been working overtime to remove torrent links to hit shows, sometimes minutes after they appear online. The most popular torrents for the latest episodes of Game of Thrones have already been removed from sites like KickassTorrents and Torrentz. 

But The Pirate Bay has an official policy of ignoring takedown requests, as do other sites, which means these popular torrents are still widely available online.