Looks like The Daily Mail got a little ahead of itself. It, along with a few other outlets, recently reported that HBO threatened legal action against a 13-year-old girl over her use of the phrase “Winter Is Coming” on a piece of artwork she uploaded to the internet. The network says it’s not true.
According to the original story, the girl received a cease a desist notice after she posted the design to an online competition held by the nerd centric site Redbubble.
"Felicity Wilcox, 13, from Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, was stunned when she received an email warning she faced legal action for copyright from HBO, unless she removed the phrase from her work."
As the girl herself is only a minor and, according to her parents, on the spectrum, most of the quotes came from her dad, who was roaring mad over it.
"Why are they picking on a 13-year-old girl? … My initial reaction was shock, like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ It is just so heavy-handed for something so menial … Flic was really scared when the email mentioned the complaint and the possibility of a lawsuit."
But HBO is now pushing back on those claims, via Entertainment Weekly.
"We love when fans are creative in their support of our programs. These works live online in many incarnations and in the past we have celebrated them by drawing attention to them. Many for-profit websites that sell products, such as Redbubble, take steps to avoid infringements as part of their standard operating procedure. To suggest a particular individual was targeted, or that HBO threatened legal action against her, is simply untrue."
The takedown notice, which The Daily Mail helpfully printed, is not the one that sites get from HBO, but in fact is from Redbubble itself. Not that most people are that familiar with takedown notices, and one can easily see where the family would be confused. EW says they reached out to Redbubble in hopes of getting a statement, but did not hear back by press time.