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Pornhub Reacts to Controversy over 'Game of Thrones' Porn Vids

Users have uploaded potentially copyrighted material to the popular porn website in a desperate urge to disseminate adult dragon princess content to the masses.
Photo by Macall B. Polay via HBO

HBO is taking action against the popular porn site Pornhub for featuring clips lifted from its hit dragon fairy sex show Game of Thrones, according to a recent report from The Sun. The BBC says the network is pursuing the action because of a breach of copyright in which "some scenes from the show have appeared on the site."

Pornhub does feature a lot of gryphon castle fucking: A search for "Game of Thrones" on the adult website currently returns 810 results. The overwhelming majority of these videos are explicitly or otherwise obviously parodies. "Game of Thrones Double Penetration," for example, has been viewed more than 125,000 times and consists of a raven maiden blowing and fucking two men in suits of armor (which eventually come off). The five-minute clip "DAENERYS TARGARYEN PLEASURED BY LESBIAN SEX SLAVE IN GAME OF THRONES," which has been viewed close to two million times, really only bears relation to the show in its leading lady's long, ethereally braided blonde hair. Emilia Clarke, who plays "Mother of Dragons" Daenerys Targaryen on the show and is Pornhub's top-searched GoT character by far, does not make an appearance.

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You can legally make a parody of a copyrighted work as long as there is no way a consumer might confuse the XXX version with the real deal. The issue here is that scroungers are likely searching for rips or extended versions of copyrighted material that is actually from the show—Targaryen's lesbian sex slave, for example, is a reference to something that happened in season one. It's unclear what videos the network is objecting to, but Corey Price, the vice president of Pornhub, told Broadly, "The issue is that user(s) uploaded Game of Thrones footage" to the site. When asked for comment on the legal action the network is taking against Pornhub, a representative for HBO told The Sun, "HBO is aware of the issue and is in the process of getting material taken down from Pornhub."

According to statistics released by Pornhub last month, demand for middle-brow mythological princess smut is high. While Game of Thrones parodies rank just below Batman flicks in terms of overall searches on Pornhub, interest in HBO forest magic erotica spikes around season premieres and finales; on the day of the season six premiere in April, the site saw a 370 percent increase in GoT-related searches. Apparently millions of people don't realize you can just watch the sex scenes—which include incest, rape, lesbians, orgies, and simple prolonged gratuitous nudity—on the show itself. Lots of people's parents have an HBO Go subscription!

Pornhub seems willing to work with the network. "Pornhub is fully compliant with the law," Price said. "We respect all copyright requests and, once received, immediately remove any infringing content." Price also added that Pornhub uses a third-party content protection service that flags any potentially copyrighted material and prevents it from being uploaded.

Contrary to what some outlets have reported, Price told Broadly that Pornhub is currently "not aware of any lawsuit" related to the Game of Thrones dispute.