MLP and Copyright Laws · 8:35pm Dec 9th, 2013
Just a random aside here, but I have to wonder what the inclusion of Rainbow Dash in the latest Daring Do book says about copyright laws in Equestria. I mean, this has always been a tense point between the fans and the creators of the show itself; we're only allowed to use each other's ideas up to a certain point. Even though the two sides are (usually) on pretty good terms and would probably like to work together, a couple of fan projects have already been shut down for fear of creating a legal precedent, and the showmakers would never dare put one of our characters in the show in case a vindictive fan tries to sue their pants off. So what does it say when a famous pony's image and actions are reproduced in a popular book series and claimed as the intellectual property of the author, with no compensation to Dash aside from getting the book a week early? Is this an image of an idealized world where fans and creators can work together without squabbling over who has the rights to what ideas, and it doesn't matter who profits as long as it's done in the name of good art? Is this their way of saying that they really do love us and it's just bureaucracy that's keeping the two sides apart? Or is this a cautionary tale about Rainbow Dash getting royally screwed over by an author but being too star-struck to realize that she's entitled to a heck of a lot more than a free book? One thing's for sure: if Ahuizotl were half the evil genius that he thinks he is, he'd gather up all the Daring Do books he could and drive the author to ruin for unauthorized use of his likeness.
Unless he's in on it too. Hmm. I need to ponder this further.
The moral of the episode was that all you have to do to get your OC featured in Season 5 is break into M.A. Larson's house and help him fight off an otherworldly evil with the help of several other fans who get really intimately involved in the whole process but get precisely jack to show for it.
Nah. Ahuizotl is too dumb for that. He is hopelessly tied by the rules of his genre. (If he wasn't, he wouldn't have survived that collapse - that's how fictionworld physics works)
Also, wall of text.
There's a comedy fic in here somewhere. I know there is.