Oh Hasbro... · 4:03pm Mar 22nd, 2014
Yes, this is pretty much the way I view Hasbro at this point
As some of you probably know, Hasbro has just issued a cease and desist letter to Jan Animations, who have brought us show quality work such as;
Picture Perfect Pony
Don't Mine at Night
Button's Adventure
Meet the Bronies
I'm sure I'm not alone when I say just how utterly disgusted I am with this.
After what happened with Fighting is Friendship and the guy who made those very nice 3D prints of Derpy and Vinyl Scratch I really shouldn't have been surprised to read this article in EQD this morning just before I got ready to stream the new MLP episode.
Not only am I disgusted and pissed, but I am also worried for what this could imply for the rest of our fandom.
With all the talk of 'Fair Use' floating around the internet these days, it seems as though these corporate entities are starting to crack down on what they perceive as infringements on their Intellectual properties.
How long will it be before someone at Hasbro decides that fanart and fanfiction fall under this catagory?
How long before we get that announcement from Knightly that fimifiction.net will be shutting down due to a C&D letter from Hasbro similar to the one that was sent to Jan Animations?
How long before the same thing happens to Equestria Daily?
How long before Hasbro decides that it can still make a prophet with or without the support of the online brony community.
How long?
EqD makes Hasbro too much money. And the show staff outright LIKE us (hi, EqD fic pre-reader here
) so that won't be an issue. Show staff are also legally barred from reading fanfiction in their contracts, and we make no money off of it (or at least not enough to be of any legal concern) so we're safe there. Fanart's protected as an artistic medium.
Sorry for the comment on a (now) old post.
Predictably, some folk in Hasbro have started looking into this themselves because of the raucous this caused.
If I recall correctly this case was made by one of Hasbro's third-party hirelings. Some legal firm they payed to root around for them...(never a good idea).
From the last bit of news that came out it looks like Hasbro will start policing their over-eager third-party help. This is not the first story like this in the last half-year; product and entertainment companies have been displeased with loosing free advertisement and PR because of aggressive lawyers seeking benefits(or justifying continued employ). Heck, even Disney is having trouble with this(and Disney is very aggressive about IPs).
The 3D prints are technically within Hasbro's copyright...
The other Cases, not so much(frivolous lawsuits, both of them).
So luckily this shouldn't become a trend.
Huh, my comment is unusually full of AppleJack.
I just posted stuff you probably know...Oops