Is Hasbro trying to shut down the fandom?

[RollingPony 100]

I just watched a video by bronycurios (

)

In the second part of the Video he is talking about Fighting is magic and and how Hasbro starts blocking fanwork and stuff on youtube...

 

Do you guys think that Hasbro doesn't like us and wants us to be gone?

I'm really concerned about that ,even tough Hasbro could make so much good things out of it.

(like show accurate toys or plushies)

 

[NavelColt 22,881]

You do realize this was posted two months ago, when 'OMFG TWILICORN, EQUESTRIA GIRLS, HASBRO DESTROYED OUR HOPES AND DREAMS WITH STOPPING FIGHTING IS MAGICZZ' was still on everyone's minds, yes? Notice how nobody is freaking out about Hasbro (that much), currently? That's because they are, in fact, not trademark tyrants :3 They do not spend all of their time running around and crushing fan projects big and small, trying to destroy the community. If they wanted to, they could. But never would, because they in fact love us. We give them ass tons of money. They only shut down ones that are a threat to their trademark. That means ones that are:

-Big

-Could be mistaken as 'official', aka 'oh wow, this looks like Hasbro actually made it!'

-Did not get permission from them ahead of time (something Fighting is Magic didn't do, unlike say, Double Rainboom)

 

There is no point in freaking out. All companies, everywhere are required to remove some fan content here and there because if they don't defend their trademark, it can get removed from their control, and then we're -all- screwed

[Sugar Pea 2,682]

Well...it would make alot of sense considering they were aiming for a younger fanbase, but without us, their merchandise would be nothing. MLP wouldn't be as popular.
You know, all that catastrophe...and imagine the rage? ^^
 

[Scootalove 10,689]

I don't really think that Hasbro is doing that at all. Besides, everyone has forgotten about the points that your making. As time went on, everyone got over it and forgot that it ever happened. So it's better to forgive and forget.

[Stalliongrad 982]

Ok First, HASBRO LOVES BRONIES. They can sell toys to people that aren't marketed toward them. People don't understand Copyright law and the fact that Fighting is Magic infringed on it left and right. Hasbro has a legal right to protect is brand. In fact, id say Hasbro lets quite a bit of stuff slide because the majority of the fan made stuff is nothing but good publicity they couldn't even try get on their own. People are very quick to jump to conclusions without thinking. If Hasbro hated bronies they wouldn't give permission to other companies to make things for bronies under license. Have you been to Hot Topic recently? Its always full of brony stuff because Hasbro acknowledges the fandom. Learn copyright law. If you use a copyrighted work to gain a profit they can take legal action against you. Now that has many many many loopholes. Sometimes "Functional" works are protected even if they have a likeness to a copyrighted work. The fact of the matter is they wont always come down on it because like i said, its positive publicity. It would actually hurt the brand if they came down harder on this stuff. How would it look if they tried to sue a little girl because she drew a picture of a character from the show? Now imagine that happening every other week. They love us because we have made them rich. End of story.

[Umbral Noir 1,556]

No, I don't think that Hasbro is doing that. It's just that fighting is magic was being made without their permission. While I'm disappointed that they cancelled it, thy did have the right to do so if they thought someone was using mlp in a way they did not want it to be.

[Sir.Flutter Hooves 2,953]

Dear Celestia!

 

Hasbro is not trying to shut the fandom down! Many people are complaining about the toys, but you know what? Hasbro has done way more than you think. Their main focus is for little girls, but they have released and released new pony toys that look nothing like the previous generation. They are not trying to shut this fandom out, and I believe they are actually doing alot for us.

 

Equestria Girls, we bronies have drawn the ponies as humans for as long as I remember, so I think this is what they think bronies want. Same thing with Twilicorn.

 

Hasbro is a good company, and should not deserve this hate! They are really doing great by the brony fandom in my opinion.

[Thunderchild 875]

Hasbro is not interested in shutting down any area of their business that is creating buzz about a product.

 

From what I've seen, they have reached out to the fandom in every way possible-including the incorporation of characters named by Bronies.

 

Hell, look at John De Lancie, standing up at Comicon, wearing a "Bronies" shirt-not to mention the overwhelmingly positive documentary about the fandom-do you think Hasbro would have signed off on one of their high profile voice actors doing that if they weren't on board?

[Gay Bird 421]

I think they're only getting rid of things like fighting is magic because it's representing the show in a way hasbro doesn't want the show represented. Hasbro isn't the greatest and they definitely don't support us, but I don't think they would try to get rid of the fandom.

[Ezio Auditore 702]

To sum this up, basically Hasbro gets pissed off when they see something relating to their products, that THEY can make money off of instead. They have nothing against us (despite what the new plushies look like)

[Shanks 10,816]

While Hasbro did indeed take down Fighting Is Magic and some other major projects they did so because with the screwed up way that copyright and trademark laws are written if they didn't do anything they would have lost the trademark which for them would have been very very bad. I am not saying that Hasbro loves us but they clearly love our money and understand that much of that money is because of the de facto free advertizing from the overwhelming majority of fan projects which do not threaten any copyrights or trademarks they have on MLP. People that are angry at Hasbro at wasting their energy fighting the wrong people, what we need to spend our energy on is to reform copyright and patent laws.

 

I started a thread a couple months back on copyright laws and if anyone who hasn't already commented wants to they are welcome to do so or if anyone has anything to add also please chime in.

 

http://mlpforums.com/topic/49035-what-do-you-think-about-copyrighttrademark-laws/

Edited April 25, 2013 by EarthbendingProdigy

[Argumedies 1,748]

Hasbro's not evil. Its just... misunderstood.

 

Hasbro doesn't hate us but it still needs to protect its self. Piracy is rampant. And believe it or not. Everything we do that involves their copyright is piracy.

 

I'd be happy we get away with as much as we do.If you compair Hasbro with any other large main corporation you would find out just how much of a blind eye they give us.

 

Hell look at Disney. You think they would let us be the way we are if FIM was theirs?...not only no, but hell F-n no.

 

Hasbro has obligations just like any other business and has to protect it's assets. But its not stupid enough to scare away unexpected income. They are however, going to sit back and see just how far it can go with it trying to squeeze as much as they can into their collictive coffers as they can while the ride lasts so they give us a lot of latitude

[Betez 1,734]

As others have said, I don't think this is true. Hasbro makes tons of money off of us, why would they want to get rid of us? I don't think we have anything to worry about.

 

And if this video really is 2 months old, then I REALLY don't think we have anything to worry about.

[Blue Moon 6,341]

Hasbro doesn't hate us, no matter what some of you guys may think. They are simply a company and need to protect themselves. We are luck they let us get away with the stuff we do.

[Gone Airbourne 21,977]

Why in the world would Hasbro "shutdown the fandom". Pshh that statement in itself is just silly. They love us cause we give them money as any company would duh.... Just like Chaotic Discord said pretty much everything he said summed up your answer... 

[Orablanco Account 3,707]

Hasbro? Shutting down the fandom?!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qh_IFymXS9o

 

That's what In have to say to that.

 

What possible reasoning would justify that happening. Do they not like money? Do bronies just creep them out and they want them to go away? Did they eat paint chips as children?

 

As for Hasbro shutting down some fan work, as kinda lame as that is, they have a right to do so to protect their copyright/trademark/whatever.

[Righteous Fury 344]

First off, money is money, and publicity is publicity. Even if Hasbro hates us they're never going to 'shut down' the fandom. We're the ones with big wallets buying merchandise and spreading the word of the show.

 

Secondly, I know I'm probably going to get hated on for this, but I think Hasbro made the right call with Fighting is Magic. MLP is a franchise aimed for young girls about friendship, good morals, and rainbows. To have someone make a violent game out of that is insulting, even if the original intent was a kind parody, it's still their property, their universe, and they have every right to try and keep the vision intact. They can't stop the porn or the PONY.MOV and similar crap, but they could stop this.

[TheFabulousPony 102]

I really quite doubt that Hasbro hates bronies. Especially since the fandom makes them a huge profit, which is what most companies care about lol.

[Argumedies 1,748]

As much as I hated to see fighting is magic come to an end. Remember it was only the beginning of something better.

 

I don't believe that Hasbro really wanted to but had to. And speaking for myself I can understand why so I don't blame them.

 

But look at all the expierence Main6 got. These guys actually made a name for themselves in the gaming industry and are starting to be looked at like the next Bungie. (Or so I'm told)

 

So in an odd, round about way, Hasbro did um a favor. So when they do roll out with the new fighting game.it will be all theirs and I'll be standing in line waiting to throw cash at them instead of Hasbro

Edited April 25, 2013 by Argumedies

[hawkflame 3,310]

I think that what happened with Fighting Is magic was something of a last resort, and I think their hand was more or less forced by the situation.  Had Mane6 not submitted the game to EVO 2013, Hasbro likely would not have done anything. 

 

I think that Hasbro made a gross miscalculation here and think they should have shut it down before it got too big, but I don't think they're trying to shut down the fandom as a whole.

[True Rarity 1,240]

Hasbro's not going to shut us down. If they didn't like us, they would have crushed this website long ago.

Do remember that bronies and pegasisters like ourselves gave Derpy her name! This proves that Hasbro respects us!

[Flicker Sweet 3,391]

If Hasbro got rid of the fandom, they would lose a huge source of their profit......this video seems more full of butthurt than it does logic. It doesn't make any sense, from a business stand point, for Hasbro to try and eliminate the Brony fandom.....I say good day

[Fhaolan 4,484]

I think that what happened with Fighting Is magic was something of a last resort, and I think their hand was more or less forced by the situation.  Had Mane6 not submitted the game to EVO 2013, Hasbro likely would not have done anything. 

 

I think that Hasbro made a gross miscalculation here and think they should have shut it down before it got too big, but I don't think they're trying to shut down the fandom as a whole.

 

Likely they weren't going to do anything even then, but had their hand forced by Gameloft.

 

Basically Hasbro had sold a license to Gameloft for MLP games. Likely the language of that license was extensive enough that Gameloft made the case that Fighting is Magic was an infringement on the *license*, when they found out the game was up for EVO, and Hasbro had to respond or face being sued by Gameloft. And since the lawsuit would point out that Hasbro wasn't defending their IP as stringently as the copyright/trademark laws require, Hasbro would therefore be in even worse shape.

 

Hasbro has let a lot of stuff slide that they didn't have to. On average they only seem to get involved when a fanwork starts infringing on something that they've already sold a license on, and in most cases they just send a polite 'please change the way you'r doing this' letter. For example, a lot of the custom- & fan-made plushie- makers got letters asking them to take down their price lists. Not to stop doing the commission work, but to stop making it look like they were mass-producing stuff.

 

There's only been a couple of confirmed Cease and Desist letters that I'm aware of, one for the infamous Lyra sex toy, and the one for the Fighting is Magic game. There may have been a few others.

 

No Hasbro doesn't hate us. At worst they don't care, unless we do something stupid. They're very twitchy about their IPs, rightfully so given that they already lost a chunk of the G1 MLP IP back in the day because they misunderstood what exactly they were doing when they converted to G2 MLP, and sold most of the G1 molds rather than destroying them or archiving them.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Fhaolan

[Domnopalus 19]

I agree with what everyone is writing here; I don't think you have very much to worry about.  They want to make money and they want the show represented in a certain way I think. Crushing the fandom would be an extremely dumb move on their part, but they also want to limit copyright infringement also.  But I know for a fact that they are not as trademark tyrannical as they COULD be.  The Godzilla fandom and Toho are examples of real trademark tyranny, lol.  They will seek out and crush ANYTHING that is not created by them and ANY reference of Godzilla if it isn't put forward by Toho.  Glad it's not like that with Hasbro!

[Pinkazoid 3,493]

Destroying it's biggest money source?

 

 

Geeez, i know they do pretty bad choices all the time for the sake of earning a few cheap bucks, but they wouldn't go THIS far :3