Piracy is always going to be and always has been an issue when it comes to movies, films and music, however it seems as though one company may not see it in the same way as some other companies, after the programming president at HBO mentioned in a statement, that he sees it is a compliment.

A comment that was in response to a question asked by Entertainment Weekly, asking how he felt about Game of Thrones becoming a widely tormented programme, Michael Lombardo said the following:

“I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts the demand is there. And it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network.”

“If you look at aggregate of international and DVD sales — which are the two revenue streams we look at since we’re not selling it domestically on another platform — yes, absolutely, in terms of shows we have on now,” Lombardo continues.

“One of my worries is about the copies [downloaders are] seeing, The production values of this show are so incredible. So I’m hoping that in the purloined different generation of cuts that the show is holding up.”

So it seems as though his main worry might just be that viewers are not getting the quality they should be, however he does mention that it is still HBO’s policy to stop piracy when it is seen.

“We obviously are a subscription service so as a general proposition so we try to stop piracy when we see it happen, particularly on a systematic basis when people are selling pirated versions,”

Source: EW