HBO’s ‘Game Of Thrones’ War Heats Up

The war over Game of Thrones has just started and it’s getting hot, as HBO begins to take on Periscope, the mobile streaming app owned by Twitter. The real-life HBO-Periscope battle began, as Periscope users shared the first Game of Thrones episode with their Twitter followers.

“Periscope operates in compliance with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Periscope will respond to valid takedown requests,” Periscope told Deadline in a statement issued in response to comment concerning the alleged Game of Thrones violation.

In response, HBO has issued statements to the media claiming that they have sent take down notices to Periscope regarding that Game of Thrones episode, but their requests have thus far gone unanswered.

“In general, we feel developers should have tools which proactively prevent mass copyright infringement from occurring on their apps and not be solely reliant upon notifications,” HBO said in their statement.

All of this back-and-forth battling has, meanwhile, not solved anything, while users continue to benefit from the loopholes that enabled the Game of Thrones file sharing. As it turned out, there are even more Game of Thrones episodes freely floating around the internet. Reports state that the first four episodes of Game of Thrones‘ fifth season have been pirated and are currently available through various torrent sites.

Each company seems to be crying foul, but, in reality, no one has actually been harmed by the Game of Thrones leaks. The fifth series premiere of Game of Thrones enjoyed its largest on-air HBO launch in the show’s history. Game of Thrones attracted 8 million viewers this Sunday. This result comes after it was reported by some sources that the fourth season finale of Game of Thrones was the most pirated episode of any series in television history.

Even the director of Game of Thrones, David Petarca, cannot find fault with the piracy of the show, instead finding the leaks a sign of HBO’s success with Game of Thrones.

“I think it really raises the profile of the show and raises the profile of HBO in general… It really helps the show’s cultural buzz, and it does not impact the bottom line because HBO has more than enough money to keep making the show.”

Meanwhile, Twitter has responded in lieu of Periscope’s apparent failure to respond. Twitter has stated that it will look into the accounts of users found to be sharing Game of Thrones episodes in their feeds and plans to ban repeat offenders.

HBO may have their work cut out for them. Game of Thrones has just started their new season and there’s no limit to the number of file sharing websites willing to spread the Game of Thrones love.

[Featured image: Dean-Charles Chapman. Image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Entertainment]