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Twitter has come under fire from HBO after users of its Periscope livestreaming app used the service to broadcast the hit show Game of Thrones illegally.

HBO has sent takedown notices to Periscope after users of the Twitter-owned live-streaming app were using it to broadcast the fifth-season premiere of Game of Thrones on Sunday night.

It comes amid fears the service could become widely used to watch TV and movies illegally in any country.

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Periscope users were broadcasting the Game of Thrones premiere on April 12 to their network of friends.

'We are aware of Periscope and have sent takedown notices,' an HBO spokeswoman said in a statement. 

'In general, we feel developers should have tools which proactively prevent mass copyright infringement from occurring on their apps and not be solely reliant upon notifications.'

Periscope allows people to live-stream video from their phones to their Twitter followers with the click of a button.

The new app 'lets you share and experience live video from your mobile phone' and is 'a perfect complement to Twitter, which is why we acquired the company in January,' Twitter's Kevin Weil said in a blog post.

The Periscope team outlined a range of possibilities for the service, including how it can turn any smartphone user into a global reporter.

'What if you could see through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine? Or watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon in Cappadocia?' the Periscope team blog said.

'It may sound crazy, but we wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation. 

'While there are many ways to discover events and places, we realized there is no better way to experience a place right now than through live video.'

However, its terms of service claims it does not support copyright infringement, but currently relies on reports from users alerting the company to the infringement.

'We respect the intellectual property rights of others and expect Periscope users to do the same,' the TOS read. 

Twitter says the Periscope app is available to iPhone users, and lets them broadcast live video and audio online. And Android version is in the works, the firm said.

'We will respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with applicable law and are properly provided to us.'

The company has a team dedicated to content review, has the right to remove any illegal content and shut down a person's account if they are found to be violating the TOS.

However,  Australian website Mumbrella reported on Sunday evening that Periscope users were broadcasting the Game of Thrones premiere on April 12 to their network of friends. 

The series long has been a target for pirates, topping TorrentFreak's list of most pirated TV shows of 2014. 

Several episodes of the fifth season also made their way onto file-sharing sites over the weekend and were downloaded more than 100,000 times in the first three hours they were available. 

Last month, as Meerkat was becoming a craze at the South by Southwest festival, Twitter cut Meerkat's access to some features, which could limit its ability to grow.

The same day, Meerkat announced it had raised $14 million in venture funding, and founder Ben Rubin sounded unfazed by the Twitter announcement.

In a Meerkat stream announcing the new funding, Rubin called Periscope 'a very slick product, a very beautiful product' but that there was room for multiple players in live video.

The Periscope team outlined a range of possibilities for the service, including how it can turn any smartphone user into a global reporter.

'If you have a good idea and you don't think there's 10 other smart teams working on it already, then you don't have a good idea,' he said.

The funding round was led by the private equity group Greylock Partners, whose Josh Elman joined the Meerkat board.

'It's not about competition, it's about this massive pie,' or market, that's being created, Elman said in the Meerkat stream from a San Francisco park.

Elman added that while other live video services had been available before, they did not take off because of a lack of network capacity and enough people using smartphones for video.

'This truly feels like a beginning of a new era,' Elman said.

Meerkat effectively turns your phone into a portable webcam and lets you live stream whatever you point your handset's camera towards. It has a simple premise: press the Stream button, point the phone's camera at a scene and a link to stream is automatically tweeted from a connected account

Meerkat said in a blog post that the funding round participants also included Comcast Ventures, Entree Capital, Raine Ventures, Sherpa, Slow Ventures, Universal Music Group, 'and many awesome friends like (actor) Jared Leto, (investor) David Tisch and (YouTube co-founder) Chad Hurley.'

The funding has star power as well with participation from the United Talent Agency (UTA) which represents Hollywood actors and Sound Ventures, which includes the actor Ashton Kutcher.

'We aspire to become the most comprehensive and most impactful participatory live streaming community,' Meerkat's blog said.

The Periscope app, like Meerkat, allows anyone to stream live video to a wide audience with their smartphone ©Andrew Burton (Getty/AFP/File)

Meerkat has become a key political tool in recent weeks, with Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush 'meerkatting' his speech last week before Georgia's state legislature.

'Every minute -- literally every minute -- of every day of the campaign will be available live to anyone who wants it, no matter where they are,' Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, wrote in a column.

Commercial uses for Meerkat-like apps are also likely, says Anna Francis at the digital marketing group My Social Agency.

Because video has a stronger impact than other content, Francis said in a blog post, 'Meerkat has an opportunity to change social media forever and make a big impact on digital marketing.'