It's habbening.

[Midnight Breeze]

I don't even see HOW it's even POSSIBLE to copyright a WORD!


I also don't understand what "habbening" is supposed to mean...

Well see 'Brony' isn't a word, it's a name, and names can be copyrighted...

It's not a name, it's a moniker.

[Chishio Kunrin]

Words can't be copyrighted, but they can be trademarked. My Little Pony is trademarked because it's Hasbro's Intellectual Property. This is one reason they were able to go after MLP: Online and MLP: Fighting is Magic. They violated a trademark.

If Hasbro is not involved in this, then it's just Zazzle realizing that people were selling MLP merch without having Hasbro's permission to use their IP and noticing that a lot of it is tagged with "brony." Search "brony," and you'll find the unofficial MLP merch that could get someone in trouble.

If Hasbro is involved... then that means they've learned the easiest way to bring up brony-made stuff rather than their own stuff in search results: search the word "brony." It doesn't mean they're placing a trademark on "brony."

Heck, the term was used in the original Equestria Girls commercial, back when all it was, was just a parody of California Girls. That was a long time ago.

[Mizuki]

This whole thing is a little over my head, but if Hasbro claims the word Brony as like a trademark or w/e, I imagine them making a whole slew of "brony" merch. Maybe even a "brony" spin off

[AaronMk]

This whole thing is a little over my head, but if Hasbro claims the word Brony as like a trademark or w/e, I imagine them making a whole slew of "brony" merch. Maybe even a "brony" spin off

My Little Brony: International Youth and Young Adult-ing is Magic


Featuring Kevin Costner.

[Sea Foam]

I knew we should have called ourselves brownies.
Or maybe another name that Hasbro wouldn't dare touch.

[Midnight Breeze]

I knew we should have called ourselves brownies.
Or maybe another name that Hasbro wouldn't dare touch.

Broncos?

[Jaywo]

This is the darn "Superhero is Marvel's word" thing all over again. These words are very general words we have grown up with, and then taking it a way has a huge impact.

Copyrighting the name "Brony" isn't the end of the world, why does everypony make Hasbro out to be the devil...

Because it's a 10/10 highway into ticking off unofficial, unlicensed merch on a hit list. Or they want to use it in an advertising campaign and relegate it to them and them only. So you can't advertise MLP unofficial merch by using the term "brony" or any related terms.

It's just two ways to sort of stepping in on the pleasant underground ring we got going. Sure, they're trying to protect their domain. But there's probably better ways.

This'd also step in on Bronycon's ability to advertise - among others - which has already sent PurpleTinker up a hill. Even if most people I've met don't necessarily have the "best" relationship with Purple.

If they have copyrighted Brony, then Bronycon will either have to be granted permission to continue using that name, or find somthing else to call itself. What about pegasister? It may not be as popular, but Brony wasn't their word either. What else will they patten? Alicorn? Brohoof? Trotstep?

[Midnight Breeze]

The hell is trotstep?

[Jaywo]

The hell is trotstep?

I have not a clue. I just heard it from a newbie friend, and they said it was a pony knock-off of dubstep...


What have we become.

[Teal Turken]

This looks like the most pointless copyright claim of all time.

At least when Nintendo wants to make money off of Youtube videos featuring their products, it makes sense. It's pretty mean, but it's logical.

This just isn't.

[MrEmu]

For 1 Hasbro made UP the name 'Alicorn' for a horned and winged horse, I mean they've existed in warhammer for the bittonians but they were just called 'high Unicorns' or something, so if they copyright Alicorn I would not care at all...it's their name...

And you ponies keep saying "Hasbro is just being stupid, it's just a WORD!" well if it's just a word then why are you ponies over reacting about it?

I'm not trying to offend you...buy seriously...it IS just a word...

[AaronMk]

For 1 Hasbro made UP the name 'Alicorn'

I'd retract that presumption m8.

[Chishio Kunrin]

For 1 Hasbro made UP the name 'Alicorn' for a horned and winged horse, I mean they've existed in warhammer for the bittonians but they were just called 'high Unicorns' or something, so if they copyright Alicorn I would not care at all...it's their name...

And you ponies keep saying "Hasbro is just being stupid, it's just a WORD!" well if it's just a word then why are you ponies over reacting about it?

I'm not trying to offend you...buy seriously...it IS just a word...

Nah, people have been using the word alicorn to describe a winged unicorn since long before the word started being used in the show.

Also, you can't copyright a word. You can trademark it, but only in a certain usage, and I doubt they can trademark alicorn to keep other toy companies from calling a winged unicorn an alicorn. Trademark works kinda like this...

Say I want to start an airport business called Alicorn Airlines, so I trademark it, so no one else can call their airport Alicorn. Someone else wants to call their shoe company Alicorn. I can't take them to court for that because a shoe company has nothing to do with an airport company. People associating "Alicorn" with that shoe company will not harm my trademark rights for "Alicorn" in relation to my airport company anyway, so it's fine.

If they tried to trademark "alicorn" in relation to their toys, it'd be like if Disney decided to trademark "princess," so you can no longer call someone in a show or movie or a doll a princess. I'm pretty sure they can't do that.

Not sure how many times I'll have to say it here: I highly doubt they're trying to trademark brony.

[MrEmu]

Well regardless if the term 'Alicorn' is a Hasbro made term or not ( Which it seems it is not ) the word 'Brony' is simply a word.

It is equally ridiculous to be acting like Hasbro's ending the word as it is to trademark the word...
Do I find it silly to try to trademark the word? yes... Am I going to freak out? no... it's a chunk of letters...

[Midnight Breeze]

Well regardless if the term 'Alicorn' is a Hasbro made term or not ( Which it seems it is not ) the word 'Brony' is simply a word.

It is equally ridiculous to be acting like Hasbro's ending the word as it is to trademark the word...
Do I find it silly to try to trademark the word? yes... Am I going to freak out? no... it's a chunk of letters...

That's easy to say when you aren't a maker of fan content.

How would you like it if someone copyrighted your first name and forbid you to call yourself by it?

[Chishio Kunrin]

I still think it was all just that website (and/or maybe Hasbro, I don't know. A lot of stuff seems to happen without them knowing) realizing that a lot of unofficial merch with MLP on it is tagged with "brony." If Hasbro isn't actually involved, then the website was just trying to cover themselves.

[MrEmu]

Well regardless if the term 'Alicorn' is a Hasbro made term or not ( Which it seems it is not ) the word 'Brony' is simply a word.

It is equally ridiculous to be acting like Hasbro's ending the word as it is to trademark the word...
Do I find it silly to try to trademark the word? yes... Am I going to freak out? no... it's a chunk of letters...

That's easy to say when you aren't a maker of fan content.

How would you like it if someone copyrighted your first name and forbid you to call yourself by it?

Just because they'll have the power to C&D things doesn't mean they will. They might just want t under their hat for when some brony goes around making those disgusting things that'd brake every forum rule. And I'd love to see less of those...

[Midnight Breeze]

Even if Hasbro wanted to C&D mature fan content they couldn't. To my knowledge such things are considered parody, which is protected by the first amendment if the United States Constitution. If it wasn't then websites like E621 wouldn't be able to exist without getting 9999999 lawsuits a day.

[AaronMk]

Even if Hasbro wanted to C&D mature fan content they couldn't. To my knowledge such things are considered parody, which is protected by the first amendment if the United States Constitution. If it wasn't then websites like E621 wouldn't be able to exist without getting 9999999 lawsuits a day.

Don't get too confident over the First Ammendment protecting everything.

Copyright is a complex place to be in. Sure, there ARE laws protecting producers and consumers in the world of derivative work, but it's not universal. And legal interpretation can still vary. Especially on work clearly built resembling a character from any one show. There has to be a significant amount of deviation between the source content and the new content to stand as legally being protected by the US Copyright Laws, at least.

Then there's international law, which is itself confusing. But even in the US derivative work and intellectual property rights are not protected in any form by the Constitution and Amendments. But Freedom of Speech DOES NOT cover the area of derivative work, it's largely there to say, "you can say whatever about the government, no punishment for doing so".

After the initial wave of C+D orders that swept over YouTube, FimFlamFilosophy released a pair of copyright situation reports after they were hit by the Hasbro over their parody renditions of Friendship is Magic and the use of trademarked/copyrighted images in the forms of canon characters in their Rainbow Dash Presents series. In each, they talk about the complex world of copyright and their adventures in simply trying to learn about it, and the implications it has on people like themselves.

Copyright Situation Report 1/20/13
Copyright Situation Report 1/26/13

(Maybe relevant:
Website update 1/29/13 - May contain general overview of the copyright situation
General update 2/07/13 - May contain general overview of the situation)

Copyright is a murky field and if there's one thing that I took off from the whole thing: just don't bother. Even copyright lawyers admit the Copyright field is complex and expensive to navigate. But it's not covered under the amendment rights.

Overmare Studios even did a video overview of Canadian copyright law and how it's related to their Fallout Equestria project, as well as the wild and unpredictable field of Cease and Desist. Cease and Desist is Magic


Casual overview of Copyright law and its history by CGP Grey

[MrEmu]

Careful, we don't want to start a politics fight here...