HBO Advises Periscope to Monitor Its Users After “Game of Thrones” Season Premiere Is Live-Streamed

Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO(NEW YORK) — HBO sent takedown notices to Periscope after the cable network learned that some users of the live-streaming app were using it to broadcast the season premiere of Game of Thrones to their Twitter followers on Sunday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

An HBO spokeswoman said in a statement, “We are aware of Periscope and have sent takedown notices.” She added, “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.”

Periscope, which is owned by Twitter, states in its terms of service, “We respect the intellectual property rights of others and expect Periscope users to do the same.  We will respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with applicable law and are properly provided to us.”

Periscope can remove any illegal content and shut down a person’s account if they are caught violating the terms of service.

Game of Thrones
holds the title of the most pirated show in 2014, and 2015 isn’t looking much better for the HBO series.  Four episodes of the fifth season made their way online over the weekend and were downloaded more than a million times.


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