Regarding Cease and Desists..

[colinkochevar]

I think copyright laws need to be reformed anyway. For one, current fair use exemption law needs to be respected and followed. There's so many fair use parodies and commentary and whatnot on youtube that gets taken down that shouldn't. Secondly, as long as you've edited or changed material to be something different from what the original was, I believe that the laws should change to count that as fair use. It shouldn't matter if it might take away from your profit. Competition should reign king, not corporate copyright. Piracy is one thing, making variant works, remixes, games, parodies, etc is another. Besides. These don't take away from their money anyway! I'm angry at Hasbro. I'm not going to buy any more merchandise from them anymore, and if they keep this up, I'm going to start a boycott until they stop. I don't care if I have to spam it all over the internet I WILL get a boycott going.

[Rissian]

I don't think there's a reason to get mad at Hasbro, based on the stuff I've read if they don't defend trademarks I'm pretty sure it affects them in some way law wise. I don't think they lose the trademark or anything but I think the trademark changes it's status if it's not defended. I need to read some more information on it though.

[Gracie Sky]

Yeah, after reading that article about Trademarks, it seems Hasbro was required to defend their trademarks.

I think the line they draw before getting involved is when something starts looking "official" or begins taking focus away from the show. Trademarked characters like Twilight Sparkle are supposed to be exclusively tied to My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic. But because Fighting is Magic was getting popular and using Twilight Sparkle, I get the feeling some people would begin to associate the character to that game, instead of the show, which is not in the interest of Hasbro on a legal or financial level. The game also looks good enough that if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was an official game, and I doubt Hasbro wants us confusing fan works with things they've approved.

I'm just speculating, of course, and possess little to no legal knowledge outside what I just read.

I better stop using characters from the show in my game!  Only OCs!

[LostSanity]

Everything is fine the way it is now.

The idiotic copyright laws are what need to be changed.

[CyanideInsanity]

All of this makes me wonder, how does giving someone a content license work? Is/can it be used for explicit operation, or is too general? If complete general use, this would be very bad, because if they were allowed to continue development, they could spite hasbro by turn it into an M rated fighter with lots of blood and other features which would likely cause a lot of financial issues for hasbro. If it is, or can be, extremely limited, they could just give licenses to those projects hasbro deems not too far off of their intentions in terms of age rating and content, that are hugely popular to prevent any issues of having to defend their owned works.

However, in the case of licensing fan works, even in an extremely limited way that prevents any inappropriate content as deemed by hasbro from being licensed, this would still likely cause an uproar among a certain group of people *cough*over-protective parents*cough*.

It seems we're all between a rock and a hard place... Hasbro needs to uphold certain things to protect their works, want to keep a good relationship with us, and need to not cause more rage from concerned parents and others... And us trying to keep on generating fan content that shows our support of the works hasbro created, while trying to keep out of trouble in what appears to be largely a grey legal area...

For each 'right' choice hasbro can make, there is likely two 'wrongs'.

[LostSanity]

All of this makes me wonder, how does giving someone a content license work? Is/can it be used for explicit operation, or is too general? If complete general use, this would be very bad, because if they were allowed to continue development, they could spite hasbro by turn it into an M rated fighter with lots of blood and other features which would likely cause a lot of financial issues for hasbro. If it is, or can be, extremely limited, they could just give licenses to those projects hasbro deems not too far off of their intentions in terms of age rating and content, that are hugely popular to prevent any issues of having to defend their owned works.

However, in the case of licensing fan works, even in an extremely limited way that prevents any inappropriate content as deemed by hasbro from being licensed, this would still likely cause an uproar among a certain group of people *cough*over-protective parents*cough*.

It seems we're all between a rock and a hard place... Hasbro needs to uphold certain things to protect their works, want to keep a good relationship with us, and need to not cause more rage from concerned parents and others... And us trying to keep on generating fan content that shows our support of the works hasbro created, while trying to keep out of trouble in what appears to be largely a grey legal area...

For each 'right' choice hasbro can make, there is likely two 'wrongs'.

It's much simpler than that with a simple, easy-to-understand solution.

LEAVE THE FANDOM ALONE.

[Rissian]

That wouldn't work too well sadly as many parents don't know what a fangame or fanwork is so they assume it's made by Hasbro and rarely read small print that says not affiliated with Hasbro in any way. And who gets the complaints after that if it has content parents don't like Hasbro does. 

[CyanideInsanity]

Spoiler: show

All of this makes me wonder, how does giving someone a content license work? Is/can it be used for explicit operation, or is too general? If complete general use, this would be very bad, because if they were allowed to continue development, they could spite hasbro by turn it into an M rated fighter with lots of blood and other features which would likely cause a lot of financial issues for hasbro. If it is, or can be, extremely limited, they could just give licenses to those projects hasbro deems not too far off of their intentions in terms of age rating and content, that are hugely popular to prevent any issues of having to defend their owned works.

However, in the case of licensing fan works, even in an extremely limited way that prevents any inappropriate content as deemed by hasbro from being licensed, this would still likely cause an uproar among a certain group of people *cough*over-protective parents*cough*.

It seems we're all between a rock and a hard place... Hasbro needs to uphold certain things to protect their works, want to keep a good relationship with us, and need to not cause more rage from concerned parents and others... And us trying to keep on generating fan content that shows our support of the works hasbro created, while trying to keep out of trouble in what appears to be largely a grey legal area...

For each 'right' choice hasbro can make, there is likely two 'wrongs'.

It's much simpler than that with a simple, easy-to-understand solution.

LEAVE THE FANDOM ALONE.

Actually its not that simple. What happens if a group of bronies decide to make a fan game? Nothing wrong there, but if they try to sell it? There's a problem. In the case of leaving the fandom alone, they could lose their property if people were to attempt to truly and purposely infringe and hasbro not do anything. Also with how uninformed a lot of people are today, there is always room for caution.

[McSleuthburger]

all im going to say is though you do not like the decision, but you have to respect their decision because they have the copyright / trademark
things are never as easy as just leaving something alone or shutting it down
there are many complex things that most people dont know about

[Chishio Kunrin]

Yeah, after reading that article about Trademarks, it seems Hasbro was required to defend their trademarks.

I think the line they draw before getting involved is when something starts looking "official" or begins taking focus away from the show. Trademarked characters like Twilight Sparkle are supposed to be exclusively tied to My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic. But because Fighting is Magic was getting popular and using Twilight Sparkle, I get the feeling some people would begin to associate the character to that game, instead of the show, which is not in the interest of Hasbro on a legal or financial level. The game also looks good enough that if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was an official game, and I doubt Hasbro wants us confusing fan works with things they've approved.

I'm just speculating, of course, and possess little to no legal knowledge outside what I just read.

I better stop using characters from the show in my game!  Only OCs!

I don't think Hasbro would've made Fighting is Magic as good as Mane6 was, though. To be perfectly honest.

[Ryo_D_Disk]

Im just going to throw up a comment, yes it is truly unfortunate about the current situation and I do hope that the fandom's efforts will affect this in a positive light , and in addition that nothing will go wrong to show us all in a bad light, if you know what I mean.
However at the end of the day we must remember that Hasbro is in fact a business and MLP is one of its brands, and company image and product protection factors in a lot, to this matter, and sadly there must be control points, It's my honest belief that although they encourage the fandom in certain lights aka, Conventions, Product promotion and Viewership. They still cant officially allow "Copys" of their Characters in something they cant fully control

But do not get me wrong, Support Mane6 and sign those petitions, If we make our voices heard in a Good light, im sure there could be some middle ground as long as we keep calm about the situation, we don't want to become a mob if that makes sense it would only cause more issues if we do so.
Keep calm pony on and Ryo Rant complete 

[Tekner]

I would just like to say that I, and many of my teammates, aren't stressing this situation as much as you'd probably all think. We've been preparing for this for a long time, as you should be aware by now, and we are confident that any imminent C&D can be resolved successfully. It may require some changes to the site and some minor changes to the game, but I don't see us getting shut down.

[Book Smarts]

As some have noted, the disaster and shock is over, time to salvage 

[LostSanity]

Ha Ha.

No.

Spoiler: show

I still plan on making my YouTube video

I'm not going to accept this. Sorry.

[Julius]

Ha Ha.

No.

Spoiler: show

I still plan on making my YouTube video

I'm not going to accept this. Sorry.

Fitting profile picture man, but I'm with ya on this...

[Night Pony]

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/02/regarding-fighting-is-magic-takedown.html#more

[LostSanity]

Good News: I'm not doing my video anymore because people like to complain

Bad News: I don't understand this. I spent most of my time last night, during commercials of Toonami, trying to wrap my head around this.

But I just can't.

Why are you accepting this?

[McSleuthburger]

why are people accepting this?

because Hasbro has full rights to do so, though many not like the decision
Hasbro is protecting their IP (Intellectual property)

[LostSanity]

why are people accepting this?

because Hasbro has full rights to do so, though many not like the decision
Hasbro is protecting their IP (Intellectual property)

...

Whatever.

I'll just do what I do best.

Disobey.

[Sea Foam]

Law and Politics are two things that just go way over my head.
Because of this, I've had a question that has been floating around my head for a while now, and I apologize if it seems like a stupid question.

Why is it that games such as this can be taken down because of character rights, even though they will not make profit, while people can still make plushies, art, and other pony related merchandise of these Hasbro licensed characters to sell at conventions and online for their own monetary gain? Why does one seem to go over fine with Hasbro, while the other does not?