Winning the Emmy Award for outstanding drama series this year was a final glorious bow for Breaking Bad, one of the most critically acclaimed television dramas of all time.
It was also a shortcut to the top of the piracy totem pole, with illegal downloading of the series soaring in the wake of the win, according to a United States-based study.
Internet users who illegally download television programs may be breaking the law, but they clearly have good taste. (In the US there is a law that states that it is illegal to download copyright infringing material but such language does not exist in Australia.)
According to data published by the anti-piracy company CEG Tek International, illegal downloading of Breaking Bad soared more than 400 per cent in the week following the Emmy Awards.
Prior to the win the show was tracking at 27,587 daily instances of illegal sharing. That number soared to 141,334 after the Emmy Awards.
But even with an Emmy Award behind it, Breaking Bad could not best the most downloaded television program in the world.
That remains HBO's Game of Thrones, which clocks an astonishing 296,734 daily instances of illegal sharing.
Each of those instances is either someone uploading or downloading an episode.
The data is compiled by the anti-piracy company CEG Tek International and published at regular intervals.
CEG Tek says a number of other shows, including Netflix's House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, recorded significant lifts in illegal downloading activity in the wake of the Emmys.
CEG Tek recently identified Orange is the New Black, which is set in a women's prison, as the second most downloaded program in the world behind Game of Thrones.
