Sony destroys the pony remix scene. FIGHT IT!

Update 2016/04/21: There are new infos about the situation with Sony and pony music and new things we can do to fight it! Please visit this blog entry to read about all the new developments:

http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/621842/news-about-sonys-pony-music-massacre-on-youtube

Update: The Facebook page is apparently not an official one, so I replaced it with the "My Little Pony" Facebook page. The e-mail address is also not working and only accepting e-mails from authorized senders.
I replaced it with the e-mail address for Corporate Social Responsibility issues, which is as close to an official e-mail address for complaints, suggestions and questions as it gets.

So I just woke up, went on Equestria Daily and read this:

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2016/04/sony-rampaging-through-youtube-with.html

Sony has started a gigantic attack on everything pony music on YouTube. This goes from remixes of songs from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to even videos where bronies sing songs from the show at conventions.
The procedure looks like this that Sony claims monetization of the uploads, then blocks them in every country of the world. So far a number of remixes of "Babs Seed" and "Hearts Strong As Horses" as well as a video from Sethisto himself of the MLP: FiM panel from SDCC 2012 where the attended bronies sang the theme song of the show together have been hit.
More is to expect and it's probably only a matter of time until the uploads of the original songs from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic get hit too.

This would give the pony culture on YouTube another blow, as not even songs of the show can be uploaded anymore then.

But there is a catch in Sony's plan and that's why we can do something against it:

Last year, Hasbro signed a deal with Sony to distribute the EQG Friendship Games soundtrack and the MLP: FiM holiday album that got released last December. Now Sony is apparently believing that this means it automatically owns ALL of Hasbro's music. And this is wrong.
Right now, the only things Sony has distribution rights on are the soundtrack of Friendship Games and the holiday album, NOTHING ELSE. Sony doesn't have distributions rights on ANY of the songs from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. They are still exclusively owned by Hasbro and Hasbro alone.

If Sony takes down songs from the show or remixes of those, then it is overstepping its boundaries by exercising control on Hasbro's property, which is ILLEGAL.

Alone doing this is a violation of the law already, cause the songs aren't Sony's property and it's infringing on Hasbro's rights with these songs, but furthermore, remixes and covers of songs, of ANY songs, are also protected by Fair Use. There is a nice summary and explanation of what "Fair Use" means on the homepage of the U.S. Copyright Office:

http://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html

The most important parts here are:

Courts look at how the party claiming fair use is using the copyrighted work, and are more likely to find that nonprofit educational and noncommercial uses are fair.

Additionally, “transformative” uses are more likely to be considered fair. Transformative uses are those that add something new, with a further purpose or different character, and do not substitute for the original use of the work.

What makes Sony's actions even more against the law here is the fact that Sony monetized the uploads of remixes from songs of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, songs it doesn't legally own.
This is currently of no use for Sony, as it blocks the uploads worldwide anyway, but the fact that it switched on monetization of these uploads for itself anyway, most likely means that Sony plans to lift the block for a few countries of its choice and to cash in on the views of the uploaded remixes and songs then.
This would mean that a lot of people still can't listen to the songs and remixes on YouTube as they would still be blocked in most countries and more importantly here, it would mean that Sony is making profit with music that is legally owned by Hasbro.
What Sony does here is highly illegal in several different ways and this is where Sony's plan has a huge, gigantic flaw: It isn't legally allowed to do anything of what it does here.
Sony's actions here put it at a huge risk of lawsuits filed against it, both by Hasbro as well as by content creators based on Fair Use.
And the illegality of Sony's actions is why we can do something against it.

Go on Twitter, Facebook or send a letter/e-mail to Hasbro and let it know of what Sony does with the music it owns. Sony doesn't own the songs it's currently attacking and trying to make profit off, so this is something that Hasbro can't and won't tolerate. If they are alerted they have to act on this and since it's still Hasbro owning all these songs, the case won't end good for Sony.
Here's where to contact Hasbro:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hasbro

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mylittlepony

E-Mail: [e-mail]

Phone: [phone] (Toll free)

Postal address:

Hasbro, Inc.
1027 Newport Avenue
Pawtucket, RI 02862.

I just wrote Hasbro an e-mail and I'm adding my text here as a template. Feel free to copy/paste it and send it to Hasbro, but also make sure to add something personal by you if you can think of something to give your mail more impact! You can of course use it for letters too, just replace "e-mail" with "letter" in the text then:

Header: In regards to takedowns of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic songs by Sony.....

Dear Hasbro,

today it became apparent that Sony, the company you recently agreed with on a licensing deal for distributing the "Equestria Girls: Friendship Games" and the recently released Christmas album "It's A Pony Kind Of Christmas", has begun blocking videos containing the songs from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". The videos in question get blocked by Sony worldwide and afterwards, Sony claims the videos and switches on the monetization of them.
This procedure by Sony is in effect for clips from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" that contain one of the numerous songs that are a part of it, audio-only uploads of the songs, special versions of the songs uploaded by fans like instrumental or acappella versions, fan-made remixes, cover versions of the songs and music videos containing one or more songs from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". The same goes for other fan-made creations, like custom-made animations that contain one of these songs and original music that only uses snippets of the songs.
All of the uploads mentioned get blocked in every country of the world by Sony and then Sony starts to monetize off of these videos.
As a big fan of the show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and the many fan creations that are made for it, I am writing you to ask you to step in in this case and stop Sony's actions.

I am aware of it that Sony holds distribution rights on the soundtracks "Friendship is Magic Collection", "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Songs of Harmony" and "Friendship Is Magic: Songs of Ponyville", but I also know that Sony does not hold any copyrights on songs from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" that are part of these soundtracks.
This e-mail is also meant to alert you of it that Sony, by monetizing these songs from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic", is trying to make profit off of your intellectual property.

Furthermore, by blocking uploads of the songs from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and remixes and covers thereof, Sony is systematically destroying something that is a very huge part of brony and general My Little Pony fan culture.
Fans of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" have provided free advertisement for this show for years by uploading the songs of the show and fan-made creations that use these songs.
Many of these uploads have several 100,000 views on YouTube, some even viewer numbers that reach up to 1,000,000 views and beyond. The upload of the songs from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and the creations that are made with the help of these songs are to very large parts responsible for the ever growing popularity of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and have attracted countless of new fans who started to watch "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and started to buy toys and merchandise based on it over the years.
A high number of these new fans made this decision after listening to the songs from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" as their high quality convinced them of it to give this show a chance.
Sony blocking these songs and the creations fans make with them is hurting this highly positive development and it is discouraging fans of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" to continue with creating the fan-made content that provides this free advertisement.
If Sony should succeed with removing the songs from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and the fan content based on them from YouTube, it is not only hurting the worldwide My Little Pony fan community, but Hasbro as well.
Sony succeeding with its plan would mean that one of the main advertising factors for "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and the only free one gets lost for your company. It would hurt the popularity of the show and it would hurt your toy and merchandise sales as a direct consequence.
What Sony does would lead to a situation that is a disaster for everyone who holds value in "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic", be it economically or out of passion for one of the best animated shows in animation history.

Please step in and tell Sony to stop the destruction of the "My Little Pony" fanculture and to hurt your profit with the "My Little Pony" franchise by earning money with your IP and by ruining the free fan-provided advertisement for your franchise.

Sincerely

Go and write/call Hasbro and tell it that Sony is unlawfully exercising control over its own property and trying to earn money with it!

And additionally, go to Sony and call them out on their practiques (and, really, be as angry as possible here, this is the only language money-greedy corporations understand), make clear how they violate Fair Use, warn them of it that they make profit with something that they don't own and threaten them with boycott of all of their products (if you still buy from them, if you don't, tell them that this behavior is the exact reason why you don't anymore).
Here's where you can let off steam:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sony

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sony

Sony has a HUGE social media presence. Make use of that and tell it that you don't approve of its recent actions and mention all of the above in your arguments.
What Sony does is illegal and if enough people tell that Hasbro and Sony itself, we can put an end to this nonsense!

Write Sony and Hasbro about these issues and let others know too!
Go and do it right now to save the MLP: FiM remix scene and the free availability of the songs on YouTube!