It's habbening.

[Prismatic]

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

The whole issue of copyrights and trademarks is pretty much law.  As long as we're being civil in this thread (and we're dealing with MLP so it's pretty relevant) we should be fine.

[AaronMk]

The moment someone posts the Don't Tread On Me flag in a copyright discussion is the moment we all got to stop and ask ourselves serious questions anyways.

There are work arounds and loop holes. But they're not often easily accessible and to point them out requires reading a lot of legal literature. And as the gentlemen from Overmare Studios said, Cease and Desists can come often at random and can be sent against other companies. Often times in these contexts it can be to temporarily force a rival to cease services on a product, unlikely to come to any long-lasting outcome in litigation.

Unfortunately for the US we don't have the legal board Canada does that at least provides legal annotations to someone's questions on Copyright and Trademark and their case.

[Gouranga]

Unfortunately for the US we don't have the legal board Canada does that at least provides legal annotations to someone's questions on Copyright and Trademark and their case.

The solution: Move all Bronies to Canada.

[Midnight Breeze]

Unfortunately for the US we don't have the legal board Canada does that at least provides legal annotations to someone's questions on Copyright and Trademark and their case.

The solution: Move all Bronies to Canada.

How would that help? Hasbro still has legal rights over their work no matter where it was posted to the internet from...

[AaronMk]

Unfortunately for the US we don't have the legal board Canada does that at least provides legal annotations to someone's questions on Copyright and Trademark and their case.

The solution: Move all Bronies to Canada.

How would that help? Hasbro still has legal rights over their work no matter where it was posted to the internet from...

There's still a great deal of difference between US and Canadian law which would provide loop holes. And Canada has an office that can annotate and provide legal advice on copyright claims that may assist a party in understanding what's wrong and how to go forward. But they can't actually take up the defensive for the defensive party.

The extreme might be to move to some Asian country not a signatory to any of the major intellectual property rights treaties the US is a party of - or leader of.

But Canada as a whole has a better defined concept of Copyright = protection of expression. Where the US simply implies it. And Canada has a stronger [conditional] non-commercial exception. But you have to live and have infrastructure in Canada.

[Bro1997]

Hasbro has done this before with JanAnimation's Buttons Adventures which was taken off YouTube several months ago. I'm certain that they are trying to get the right to the word "Brony" only because the Bronies are a big part of MLP's total success since 2010's reboot of the series. Then again, maybe they are trying to stop the Bronies in order to prevent anymore controversy over adult men liking ponies. I think a lot of this is because of parents being concerned over the fact that their little girl's favorite cartoon is being loved by thousands of men and women across the globe just because of some posts by 4Chan nearly 4 years ago. America is only getting more paranoid over nothing and it's only going to get worse over the next 50 to 100 years from now! The death of the Bronies is coming and sadly 2015 will be the ending year for them.

[AaronMk]

Hasbro has done this before with JanAnimation's Buttons Adventures which was taken off YouTube several months ago. I'm certain that they are trying to get the right to the word "Brony" only because the Bronies are a big part of MLP's total success since 2010's reboot of the series. Then again, maybe they are trying to stop the Bronies in order to prevent anymore controversy over adult men liking ponies. I think a lot of this is because of parents being concerned over the fact that their little girl's favorite cartoon is being loved by thousands of men and women across the globe just because of some posts by 4Chan nearly 4 years ago. America is only getting more paranoid over nothing and it's only going to get worse over the next 50 to 100 years from now! The death of the Bronies is coming and sadly 2015 will be the ending year for them.

[Bro1997]

Hasbro has done this before with JanAnimation's Buttons Adventures which was taken off YouTube several months ago. I'm certain that they are trying to get the right to the word "Brony" only because the Bronies are a big part of MLP's total success since 2010's reboot of the series. Then again, maybe they are trying to stop the Bronies in order to prevent anymore controversy over adult men liking ponies. I think a lot of this is because of parents being concerned over the fact that their little girl's favorite cartoon is being loved by thousands of men and women across the globe just because of some posts by 4Chan nearly 4 years ago. America is only getting more paranoid over nothing and it's only going to get worse over the next 50 to 100 years from now! The death of the Bronies is coming and sadly 2015 will be the ending year for them.

What's with the picture. Is something wrong? I'm just telling the truth here you know!

[Midnight Breeze]

I'm just telling the truth here you know!

Actually no, you're making assumptions. Big difference.

[Bro1997]

I'm just telling the truth here you know!

Actually no, you're making assumptions. Big difference.

Well, the point is that I'm sure Hasbro is doing something to prevent having a bad image put on them about their pony franchise. Not to mention that the world has no understanding about the fact that anyone can enjoy ponies. They just segregate them to little girls and little girls only, just because their pastel colored ponies that fly around and do magic! Man, do I hate this world. I'm a male BTW and I love all generations of MLP and Filly as well.

[AaronMk]

I'm just telling the truth here you know!

Actually no, you're making assumptions. Big difference.

Well, the point is that I'm sure Hasbro is doing something to prevent having a bad image put on them about their pony franchise. Not to mention that the world has no understanding about the fact that anyone can enjoy ponies. They just segregate them to little girls and little girls only, just because their pastel colored ponies that fly around and do magic! Man, do I hate this world. I'm a male BTW and I love all generations of MLP and Filly as well.

The brony community is a pretty big demographic for them to directly alienate. If you read the thread at all past the OP then you'd probably find that the current conclusion that this was likely a move made on behalf of the site itself and not direct responsibility of Hasbro. If it was we would be hearing a lot more of the "brony" ban. But it's died out now and we've moved on to the next taste of drama: Rainbow Rocks.

Per the takedowns: they could be many, many levels more aggressive in takedown notices than they have been. There's only been major casualties with JanAnimations. Even Rainbow Dash Presents has found an applicable work-around to keep on with some of their own parody series. But the amount of action they could take is very light duty compared to companies like Capcom or Sony I believe, who just straight up nuke anything with their name that they don't control, or anything that even passingly mentions one of their brands.

Hasbro's actions in the takedown department is alligned more or less with them making a small effort to look like they're protecting their trademark so they don't lose it. If they don't respond to cited cases then under law they risk loosing trademarks and MLP enters the public domain. Hasbro doesn't want that. At the same time they don't want to alienate people - especially us - over minor infractions. If something gets public lime-light then they'll move in on it.

Otherwise, Fighting is Magic would be have been dead a lot earlier and before Based Overlord Faust moved to save the project with llama OCs.


And besides, imagine the level of awkward if they even publicly recognize PalComix exists.

[Bro1997]

I'm just telling the truth here you know!

Actually no, you're making assumptions. Big difference.

Well, the point is that I'm sure Hasbro is doing something to prevent having a bad image put on them about their pony franchise. Not to mention that the world has no understanding about the fact that anyone can enjoy ponies. They just segregate them to little girls and little girls only, just because their pastel colored ponies that fly around and do magic! Man, do I hate this world. I'm a male BTW and I love all generations of MLP and Filly as well.

The brony community is a pretty big demographic for them to directly alienate. If you read the thread at all past the OP then you'd probably find that the current conclusion that this was likely a move made on behalf of the site itself and not direct responsibility of Hasbro. If it was we would be hearing a lot more of the "brony" ban. But it's died out now and we've moved on to the next taste of drama: Rainbow Rocks.

Per the takedowns: they could be many, many levels more aggressive in takedown notices than they have been. There's only been major casualties with JanAnimations. Even Rainbow Dash Presents has found an applicable work-around to keep on with some of their own parody series. But the amount of action they could take is very light duty compared to companies like Capcom or Sony I believe, who just straight up nuke anything with their name that they don't control, or anything that even passingly mentions one of their brands.

Hasbro's actions in the takedown department is alligned more or less with them making a small effort to look like they're protecting their trademark so they don't lose it. If they don't respond to cited cases then under law they risk loosing trademarks and MLP enters the public domain. Hasbro doesn't want that. At the same time they don't want to alienate people - especially us - over minor infractions. If something gets public lime-light then they'll move in on it.

Otherwise, Fighting is Magic would be have been dead a lot earlier and before Based Overlord Faust moved to save the project with llama OCs.


And besides, imagine the level of awkward if they even publicly recognize PalComix exists.

So let me get this straight, Hasbro would totally lose the rights to the My Little Pony franchise if they didn't respond to copyright infringements. So that means any toy company like Mattel could buy MLP out and do whatever they want with it while Hasbro would lose all rights and most likely go out of business entirely. Talk about some nasty stuff that could happen! I don't want that to happen. Also Viacom is doing similar things to videos on Youtube as well.

[Chishio Kunrin]

Not to mention that the only reason other companies, like Funko, can make MLP stuff without getting in trouble is because Hasbro actually gave them permission to. They didn't give Zazzle permission, so Zazzle freaked out and got rid of everything MLP and brony that was made by bronies, just in case.

And of course, Hasbro gives companies like Funko permission to make MLP stuff because those companies know how to cater to older fans of various things. Funko knows how to deliver stuff that we will like, but Hasbro isn't quite as familiar with people like bronies. They would rather continue focusing on what they do understand (or, at least, think they understand), little girls.

[Bro1997]

Not to mention that the only reason other companies, like Funko, can make MLP stuff without getting in trouble is because Hasbro actually gave them permission to. They didn't give Zazzle permission, so Zazzle freaked out and got rid of everything MLP and brony that was made by bronies, just in case.

And of course, Hasbro gives companies like Funko permission to make MLP stuff because those companies know how to cater to older fans of various things. Funko knows how to deliver stuff that we will like, but Hasbro isn't quite as familiar with people like bronies. They would rather continue focusing on what they do understand (or, at least, think they understand), little girls.

Well, of course. Hasbro's used to doing the same marketing methods for My Little Pony since the franchise was launched in 1983. Most of the people working for Hasbro probably aren't bronies themselves and still probably believe in the "Ponies are for little girls" thing. They would never give Zazzle's permission because they don't know them very well and wouldn't trust them in giving them half the money for the products. Funko though was probably trusted a little more, but still Hasbro wants to focus on marketing stuff on MLP more for little girls because it's more socially acceptable and put's a better image on the company. Unless some bronies start working for Hasbro and America and Europe start to accept the idea of ponies being loved by both men and women, it will continue being the same way. Plus, Hasbro has a major competitor in the European market with the Filly brand which is only liked by young females. BTW, I have Funko's Rainbow Dash. I bought her at Wal-Mart.