Before making its debut on HBO last night in the US, the much-anticipated first episode of the fifth season of Game of Thrones has already been downloaded more than one million times, after the show’s first four episodes were leaked online on Saturday.

Believed to have been taken from critics screener DVDs, the episodes appearance online comes at an unfortunate time for the show; Game of Thrones and its producers have consistently worn its annual title as ‘The most downloaded TV show in the world’ as a badge of honour, but now that online piracy is ahead of the broadcast schedule, heads could roll.

While HBO executives will undoubtedly be scouring the Internet to take down any links to the files containing the first four episodes of the show’s new season, a new avenue for online piracy of shows like Game of Thrones could be coming from livestreaming apps like Meerkat and Periscope.

So far, it hasn’t really been an issue due to the low-resolution quality of the video – nobody really wants to watch a show as gorgeous looking as Game of Thrones without at least being able to count the dragon scales or exposed naked extras in the background. But as the technology improves and the user base grows, it might not be too long before we’re crowding around our smartphones screens to see in real-time the HBO broadcast on Meerkat or Periscope.

And right now, there’s nothing that HBO could do to stop it.

At present, Meerkat and Periscope only have limited means of counteracting copyright infringement, generally by closing the user accounts of people who repeatedly stream copyrighted content to the masses. But this means that the apps would have to chase people who abuse their terms of service, rather than putting in place restrictions that limit those capabilities in the first place.

And that’s where the problem lies for livestreaming – users are not uploaded copyrighted content to their servers to live on, they’re merely rebroadcasting them live. It will be extremely hard to keep track of violations and enforce rules.

As this is unclear ground, it is anticipated that Meerkat and Periscope will act like YouTube when it comes to cracking down on streaming pirates: notify the user that he or she is infringing upon copyright and remove their ability to livestream. If this was accidental, for instance a song or film playing on TV in the background, it’s likely that the service will only be temporary. Though both apps will be relying upon other users to report any wrongdoing.

Of course, right now this is mostly speculative, as anyone wanted to watch the latest episodes of cable TV from the US only has to wait a couple of hours after they finish broadcasting across the pond. By then, they can readily be found for illegal download or streaming in quality far superior than a shaky iPhone camera pointed at a TV screen – though perhaps people are in it for the commentary and reactions from the streamers?

After all, the reaction videos of viewers to the show’s infamously brutal and death-filled ninth episodes are huge viral hits online, despite the show’s copyrighted material playing in the background.