Looks like The Daily Mail got a little ahead of itself again. Despite the sensational story that an autistic girl is being sued by HBO over the use of “Winter Is Coming” on her designs, the network says it’s not true.
According to the original story, which has now been picked up by multiple outlets in the UK, the girl received a cease a desist notice after she posted the designs 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. She had incorporated the phrase – an expression central to the plot in the fantasy series – as part of an artwork competition on website Redbubble.
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?Flic was really scared when the email mentioned the complaint and the possibility of a lawsuit … My initial reaction was shock, like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ It is just so heavy-handed for something so menial.”
Oh, meow hopes this story isn't true! It's a lovely picture. https://t.co/W33MTWJoY1 pic.twitter.com/1a95PuIOYm
— Purrbot (@PurrbotKitty) December 15, 2016
But HBO is now pushing back on those claims, via Entertainment Weekly.
“We love when fans are creative in their support of our programs,” the network said in a statement obtained by EW. “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 clearly from Redbubble, which confirms HBO’s version of events. 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.
Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/12/15/no-hbo-isnt-suing-a-13-year-old-over-winter-is-coming-artwork/
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