HBO is denying that there is a lawsuit being served against Felicity Wilcox, a U.K. teen with autism who posted an image for an online amateur art competition on the website Redrubble which featured the tagline "Winter Is Coming," which is the tagline for "Game Of Thrones."
Wilcox's parents expressed outrage over the seemingly mundane act being taken out of proportion to the point of involving lawyers. "Why are they picking on a 13 year old girl," Jonathan Wilcox, Felicity's father told the UK Daily Mail. The site then sent Felicity a threatening email stating that the cable TV giants woud file a lawsuit if the image was not removed immediately.
The message read: "Dear Flic, we have removed the following content from Redrubble in response to past complaints from Home Box Office Inc, the claimed owner or licensee of related intellectual property and in accordance with Redrubble's IP/Publicity Rights Policy." HBO, however says that the entire situation was blown out of proportion.
According to EW, the network said; "We love when fans are creative in their support for our programs." The complaint, according to EW was made by Redrubble and not HBO. It wasn't clear if the letter was a blanket statement for participants using trademarked images or text or whether it was triggered singly by the "Winter Is Coming" artwork by Wilcox. In any case, it must be distressing for such a young girl to receive an email like that from HBO.
HBO's "Game Of Thrones" is a fantasy series centering on the struggle for power by different families living in the fictional domain of Westeros. The quote "Winter Is Coming" is very central to the plot of the show, which will have its 7th season premiere in mid 2017. What are your thoughts? Please let us know in the comments section.
