Regarding Cease and Desists..

[EnrisPony]

I'm sorry if this has already popped up, and if it's in a bad category. Seemed like a reasonable place. But as many of you know, Fighting is Magic has received a cease and Desist. I'm kinda scared that this is going to get one as well. Hasbro's legal team has been going hay-wire over the past few months, and they simply cannot see that it's going to come back and bite them in the very, very near future if they don't stop.

What do you guys think's going to happen? Should Fighting is Magic have received the letter after the game was publicly released, it would be one thing, but even though the game was nearing it's completion from what I'd seen, it just didn't make it.. Legends of Equestria isn't a one-time-release then leave it to online distribution game. If they don't like what's happening, they can stop it, and unless there'll be an offline mode, It'll be the end. What do you guys think? I know that the staff is going to see it through for as long as they can but.. I'm scared.. I've been following this project for as long as I've been a fan of MLP, and this is one of the most terrifying things I've experienced in the fandom..

What do you think's going to happen? I hope this all rolls over.. And if this has already been covered I'll get rid of it.. If there's a better category, I'll have it moved over as well... Thanks.  

[Rissian]

I'll sort of copy paste my post here.

I think LoE will be okay it contains no copyright infringement and even if they tried to get it because of area names if that's even possible, they can just rename everything and change things that are copyrighted if anything is, which I don't think it is aside from area names and the world name. And you can't claim Unicorn or Pegasus as they belong to mythology and Earth Ponies are just normal Ponies basically.

The team has also mentioned multiple times they have it handled if I recall so we probably don't have to worry about it.

[Chishio Kunrin]

As far as I've seen, Hasbro has mainly hit games that have characters from the show in them. After all, Hasbro has copyright over all characters in the show. That's pretty much the reason LoE won't have any of the show's characters and won't allow players to name their ponies after characters. The LoE team has taken other precautions as well. Admittedly, I'm surprised that Fighting is Magic was targeted, but at the same time, not completely surprised.

But anyway, LoE has taken more precautions not to get in trouble than quite a few other games. Namely, the fact that it doesn't include canon characters, unlike Fighting is Magic and MLP: Online. Plus, there's the fact that MLP: Online was outright My Little Pony Online.

[Weatherboy1]

Here's the thing LoE doesn't contain any characters from the actual show, and they are going to make sure that's going to stay, so basically Hasbro won't have a good reason to remove this project as far as I know so don't worry.

[EnrisPony]

Ugh, I really hope you guys are right.  Then again, Mane6 was asked to relinquish any material with not only names, and characters, but locations, and I'm assuming, names of locations.. I doubt they could easily pass these as valid grounds, but It still worries me. They've been going overboard lately, and I don't doubt that they'd at least try.

[Weatherboy1]

Ugh, I really hope you guys are right.  Then again, Mane6 was asked to relinquish any material with not only names, and characters, but locations, and I'm assuming, names of locations.. I doubt they could easily pass these as valid grounds, but It still worries me. They've been going overboard lately, and I don't doubt that they'd at least try.

As far as I know they hadn't copyrighted Ponyville, also they hadn't gone overboard this is totally in their right. Now do we like it? of course not! But they are on valid grounds, and besides... If another goes down I bet someone will start a petition to end these practices

[Rissian]

A petition to save fighting is magic has already been started in another topic I'll post that topic's petition link here.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/526/847/063/allow-the-continuation-of-the-development-of-mane6s-mlp-fighting-is-magic/

If anything maybe it will send Hasbro a message.

[Chishio Kunrin]

Ugh, I really hope you guys are right.  Then again, Mane6 was asked to relinquish any material with not only names, and characters, but locations, and I'm assuming, names of locations.. I doubt they could easily pass these as valid grounds, but It still worries me. They've been going overboard lately, and I don't doubt that they'd at least try.

As far as I know they hadn't copyrighted Ponyville, also they hadn't gone overboard this is totally in their right. Now do we like it? of course not! But they are on valid grounds, and besides... If another goes down I bet someone will start a petition to end these practices

I think the issue with the names of places is trademark, rather than copyright, though I could be wrong. Trademark laws are different than copyright laws, so that can complicate things a bit. If location names becomes a problem, that can be easily remedied.

Of course, anyone who puts "My Little Pony" in their game's name or something is really in the danger zone. "My Little Pony" is definitely a trademark, and it's apparently not one that Hasbro is too entirely happy to share, when it comes to games. Hence MLP: Online.

[Rissian]

Someone on the IRC posted this link which provides information on trademark and such they also talk a bit about fangames.
http://www.roundstable.com/2012/12/13/friendship-is-a-registered-trademark/

[LostSanity]

Hopefully people will stop saying how I'm wrong about Hasbro turning into dictators now.

P.S.: I signed the petition.

[Julius]

Like others have said, our wonderful MMORPG doesn't worry me, as the team has taken enough precaution.

Fighting Is Magic however... Man, what a slap to the face...

[Liska]

[Julius]

Here's another petition...

https://www.change.org/petitions/hasbro-inc-allow-the-game-fighting-is-magic-to-continue-development-by-mane-6#share

[jimm]

This one has a lot more steam http://www.thepetitionsite.com/526/847/063/allow-the-continuation-of-the-development-of-mane6s-mlp-fighting-is-magic/

[Julius]

This one has a lot more steam http://www.thepetitionsite.com/526/847/063/allow-the-continuation-of-the-development-of-mane6s-mlp-fighting-is-magic/

Signed that a while ago. I'm signing EVERYTHING!

[R-Zack]

[glow=red,2,300]SIGN ALL THE PETITIONS.[/glow]

[Julius]

[glow=red,2,300]SIGN ALL THE PETITIONS.[/glow]

[Lord of Madness]

[glow=red,2,300]SIGN ALL THE PETITIONS.[/glow]

well if you say so o 3o

[LostSanity]

Signed.

I'll be sharing these petitions for what I have planned...

*does the Light Yagami evil smirk*

[tigrean]

I signed the fighting is magic petition. What I think is happening is that Hasbro is seeing that a lot of the games they gave the go ahead become popular and now they want to make their own version so they can make money. After all they are only looking at the bottom line they are a business. I don't agree with this but they are in there right to do this, and that is unfortunate that all they think about is what can they do to make money.