Downloading "A Game of Thrones" - A British Perspective

I tried to watch Game of Thrones and this is what happened - The Oatmeal

This webcomic has been causing a fair bit of controversy on the Internet recently. Now, I'm all in favour of creators getting paid, and I know somebody who's involved in the production, and certainly deserves his cut, but here in the UK there's another problem. "A Game of Thrones" is broadcast by Sky over here. Sky's owners also own some tabloid newspapers, which are at the centre of a major scandal at the moment. Their journalists have been involved in phone hacking and corrupt payments to police officers on a massive scale. So it looks like, over here, even if you watch the programme legally, you'll still be giving money to a bunch of crooks.