Game of Thrones has gone to great lengths to keep as many of its twisty, surprising plot lines a secret as possible. Now, the powerhouse fantasy show, and the network on which it airs, HBO, is looking to stop Game of Thrones content from being used in an interesting way. That’s right, folks, Game of Thrones and HBO are going after PornHub.
A report from BBC Newsbeat says that the makers of Game of Thrones are currently taking legal action against PornHub for copyright infringement. HBO is upset that scenes from the actual show have appeared on the site, and that PornHub has done parodies of characters from the series, including Cersei Lannister and Lord Varys. The network notes that it is currently in the process of having the content removed from the porn site.
Considering how popular Game of Thrones and porn are, I’m surprised that this combination of things didn’t become a problem for the show much sooner. Everyone who’s seen even one episode of the HBO show knows that Game of Thrones is filled with sex, nudity and naughty things. Actually, it’s not impossible that a good number of people tune in to the program hoping for a less controversial way to get, at least some, of their jollies. After all, they can always tell people that it’s all about the intriguing characters and shocking stories, right?
This news comes about a month after PornHub released a statistic that noted that there was a four percent drop in porn consumption on the site during the Game of Thrones premiere, which doesn’t sound like much, but it actually adds up to millions of people skipping their weekly (daily?) PornHub visit for a trip to Westeros. What’s more is that, according to the site, immediately before the premiere and after watching that episode of Game of Thrones, PornHub users are considerably fired up and ready to party. Searches for Game of Thrones characters on the porn site shot up by 370%. Which is, you know, just crazy. As you can probably imagine, pretty much any woman who’s appeared naked on the show and has a character with a name made it onto the most searched list.
After getting the occasional bad press from people who think the show is guilty of leaning on nudity and sexual situations too much, it makes a lot of sense that Game of Thrones and HBO would be leery of anything that connects the show to porn. The producers go through a lot of trouble, I’m sure, to calibrate the usage of nudity so that they lessen any ideas people may have that the show is just throwing boobs and butts everywhere to get viewers.
Well, if you head to PornHub for pre or post Game of Thrones viewing, I suggest you head there now. You probably won’t be able to watch their version of Cersei do naughty things for much longer.
