HBO forced to remove the children's drawing with the inscription "Winter is close"

Picture of a teenage girl who attracted the attention of HBO

Intellectual property owners, day and night, ensure that no one on the Internet violates their rights. The American cable and satellite television network Home Box Office (HBO), which is part of the corporation Time Warner, also jealously monitors violations. In the portfolio of their intellectual property - the famous series "Game of Thrones" and everything connected with this series. A trademark in the United States is even the phrase "Winter is close."

It is very strange to claim the phrase consisting of common words of the English language ("Winter is coming"), but such a trademark is indeed registered in the USA . HBO lawyers forced us to remove a 13-year-old girl with an inscription from an artistic site.

The girl did this job for the Huevember art competition. By its terms, a new color is assigned every day, and participants have the right to change the gamma, saturation, and so on. You can use any colors in your drawing, but the main “color of the day” should remain the main Under the terms of the contest, that day was just assigned a color close to blue-lime (R: 138, G: 43, B: 226), dark purple (R: 148, G: 0, B: 211) or color “ Dark orchid ” (R: 153, G: 50, B: 204). Therefore, the girl completed the drawing in these colors.
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She published it on several sites and reposted on Facebook. In one of the drawings, the girl added the inscription "Winter is close." This version was published on the RedBubble art hosting, where independent artists and designers post their work. In principle, it is possible to sell work and earn some money through this platform, but it is unlikely that a 13-year-old girl, besides suffering from autism, seriously counted on it.

“I don’t think she uploaded the picture to RedBubble to get some commercial benefit, she just thought it was the right place to publish,” says the young artist’s father, Jonathan Wilcox from Edwinstone, United Kingdom.

But HBO lawyers thought otherwise. In their opinion, the phrase written by the child in the figure does irreparable damage to the brand, so they sent an ultimatum to the RedBubble administration asking them to delete the picture at http://www.redbubble.com/people/jinxyf/works/24153718-winter-is-coming .

The administrators have obeyed. They removed the image from the site and sent a copy of the HBO request. “When I saw this letter, my first reaction was:“ What the fuck ?! ”, the father of the child resents. - HBO should take up the mind or go with their claims to hell. "

The investigation showed that HBO makes similar claims to all hosters and sites that host the author's content with the phrase "Winter is close." It is likely that complaints are sent automatically or semi-automatically. For example, many artists suffered from these actions on the sites selling handmade products and vintage items like Etsy and others.

The author has the right to challenge the decision of the administration and issue a counter notification. In it, the user must provide his personal data, address, phone number, attach a physical or electronic signature and give consent to the examination of the case in the jurisdiction of the San Francisco District Court, USA. The father of the English girl probably did not dare to initiate this procedure, because the drawing at the indicated address was deleted and has not yet been restored.

The author of the drawing is a minor citizen of Great Britain, and the headquarters of RedBubble are in Australia, and the company's division is in San Francisco. However, the Australian company acts in accordance with the terms of the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which means the obligation to respond to complaints from rights holders, as stated in the rules of the site .

HBO Corporation has previously grieved fans of the series Game of Thrones when it forbade them to gather at the bar to watch the show and forbade discourse in public about the future development of the plot . But now the company has gone very far. What's next - to recognize the speech on the lips and punish the silently spoken words on the street? Verify the knowledge of the plot with the history of operations on a bank account?



Apparently, in Russia, the American corporation does not have rights to the phrase “Winter is close.” Therefore, in local jurisdiction, you can use these words without fear of legal prosecution.

The father of the English girl appeals to all parents who were affected by the unusual activity of HBO lawyers to boycott the video production of this channel and not to watch their TV shows, because the company offends young children.

The HBO trademark covers clothing, dishes, hats, bags, mouse pads and other souvenirs.