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JakBaronKing
"The best way to change the world is to first change yourself."

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MLP FIghting is Magic *non-profit fan game - Canceled by Hasbro

Posted by JakBaronKing - February 8th, 2013


Read the article here on Equestria Daily

Obviously Hasbro thinks too strongly on the lines of copyright protection and censorship.
*By censoring a made-up fan word, you've officially made it sound offensive.

Sure they allow little things to slide by like comics, and all the uploads you can easily find on youtube *(cause you know it'll only promote the series) - but I have bad feelings about why Hasbro placed a 'cease and deceit' lawsuit on a 'non-profit' fan-game.

The biggest tick for me is that this game is full of amazing works of game programing, animation, and music.

Does Hasbro or any other Big Name company really have the right to control our fan work?

If they did that, they might as well take down Tumbler sites, Deviantart comics, Newgrounds all that jazz. But then who are we to be? Just slaves to mediocrity?

They already took down "Friendship is WitchCraft" by Shereclop. They even had to make their own site. I don't know why, it was specifically disclaimed to be non profit fan-work.

It's a real shame. Because I was really looking forward to playing this game.

LOOK HOW AWESOME THAT IS!

A similar game even featured on Newgrounds called "PPGD: Battle in Megaville" was featured and gone un-threatened by their big name company Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

Because people knew that the game was fake and not part of the franchise. It was based off a fan-work comic.

But since Hasbro is being kinda a bunch of but-holes *scuse my language - that means they can essentially sue this guy's work too.

And look how fantastic it is! Would you really want that to be gone?

Copyright sucks sometimes. Sure we use it to protect our ideas from being 'ripped off'.

But that's the whole point of a real copyright lawsuit. Shameless rip-offs and fake merchandise, etc - stuff that makes others money at the expensive and creative effort of others. That's what copyright laws are SUPPOSE to do.

Not to halt fantastic non-profit fan-work. Those only serve as a tribute to their greatness. That's the opposite of what is suppose happen. You WANT FAN-WORK.

It's really stupid. Especially since 'some' companies only really care about money and not the creative drive that it could produce.

Can't we just live in a world where it's the ideas that are important. Not necessarily who owns them. Ideas build on top of each-other.

If this copyright "Protection" gets too out of hand, then we'll never move forward and are always staying within the boundaries of what we can and cannot take from inspiration. Because our inspiration could be claimed as 'theirs'.

That's like a Caveman suing Thomas Jefferson for "light". We'd still be in the dark ages.

Or the Earl of Sandwich suing every restaurant that sold 'HIS' meal. But even the Earl didn't make the Sandwich. One of his cooks did. The cook couldn't name it, but the king declared it for himself.

Bottom Line....it's the difference between Greed vs Creativity.

MONEY owns you. It owns your ideas. And puts a restriction on your capabilities of working with inspiration.

Hasbro may own a piece of paper of a franchise they bought out from an old woman in the 80's.

But they are seriously making people upset and halting all this creative freedom.

They were not the creative force as to why people like the franchise.

It was artists. Artists who care nothing more than the heart of animation magic and the talents of fantastic story telling.

They shouldn't get so offended by fan work. Nor do I believe they really have any right suing "non-profit" artwork.

Also - Fighting Games are very socially popular and very competitive.

But I've seen good sportsmanship emerge from a simple video game.

And nothing is wrong is friendly sparing.

----

If you are a Brony or an activist of Non-Profit Creative Freedom and want to write a letter to Hasbro.

Here is the address.

Hasbro, Inc.
1027 Newport Avenue
Pawtucket, RI 02862.

But be polite and constructive.

----

How can fans express themselves if the Franchise owners put the thumb down on everything that even hold a likeness to it!?


Comments

Wow, that game would've been a big hit here at NG. Really great music video too.

And it was all fan worked on.

No money, no contracts, no profit gained.

Just fans expressing themselves.

y'know, i didn't read your whole post but i have to say that companies (especially those in the entertainment industry) need to be more flexible. Cable might be a good example, as much of what I see here on NG is 10x as good as what's on [Adult Swim] or Comedy Central.

Indy games are a great example of how you really can still make something of yourself with your own hands. That said, there may be a deeper investigation following this "proactive" solution by major manufacturer Hasbro, Inc. which could result in a long chain of blows to the self-made developer. Key example being that while "Fighting Is Magic" is innocent and not-for-profit, there is a large number of Hentai that is largely plagiarized from popular media originally intended for children.

The targeting of "Fighting Is Magic" is strange, considering the large volume of anthro-hentai based on MLP. Goes to show that these large companies are probably too bloated to stay very clued in for long.

You're right, there are FAR WORST THINGS that Hasbro could be bashing against.

But what right do they really have anyway? It's like saying you cannot say or write or draw bad things about our President.

Isn't this "Amu'rica" - sure there are copyright laws sure, but those things are really meant to protect the product from getting ripped off for shameless profit. Say the whole "Fake Apple Store" in China for example.

Hasbro is so 'protestant' and 'politically correct' sometimes it makes me sick. They don't want the 'fighting game' because they think it promotes violence.

of course they don't want Fighting Is Magic! Other MLP stuff isn't really worth the effort, because it's usually fairly poorly done...but this one must've caught their eye because it DIRECTLY spinned the catchphrase "friendship is majik" and was garnering a lot of support.
I suppose they were concerned that the game would take away from any video game enterprising Hasbro had in mind...

Fair use is a pretty sticky thicket, and it can be easily burnt to the ground.

Now...if they were smart, they'd know that the "young adult" audience (between 16-24) would eat up a top-of-the-line MLP game for Xbox 360, if it was done right. You don't have to compromise franchise integrity OR that of the fans by going too extreme one way or another. I think "fighting is magic" caused personal offense, because it's what the franchise currently stands against.

for the record: i am actually against anything MLP.

Hasbro is basically being Protestant and gender steryopical.

The ponies obviously are capable of martial arts and fighting.

Rainbow Dash herself is a blackbelt in Karate.

Even Rarity can hold her own against against a Manticore.

They could easily imply that this game is all in good fun.

Sportsmanship and Sparing.

They could even do an episode based off it.

A Ponyville Martial Arts competition.

Sparing is fun. Just as long as no one is really getting hurt and good sportsmanship is kept in mind.

My point is....

Hasbro thinks Transformers should only be for boys and Ponies for girls and that there should be different expectations of gender behavior.

i see what you mean, and that of course goes WAYYY back to dollies and BB Guns.

At our core, we are just two halfs of the same coin.

Men and Women's roles in society are purely based on what society makes of it.

But really, it can be anything we want. And boys and girls are equal so there shouldn't be any discrepancies towards any particular behavior.

What matters is how well we treat each other.

The justification they'd use in this case, is that by producing non-profit wan works such as this they are somehow 'evaluating' the value of MLP products produced by Hasbro; ie MLP games, either past or present. If a bunch of fans start playing a flashy video game that is on par with commercial products by Hasbro, they would argue that they'd be less likely to buy official licensed games.

In fact, the very fact they put out a C&D should attest to the quality of the project and determination of those involved. Hasbro is either embarrassed, or feels threatened by this fan work. Either way, sucks to be a MLP fan.

It's unfortunate, because those who need IP law the most are smaller companies or individuals, whilst larger firms have the corporate muscle and funding to exploit it. There has been talk of using OC material, and I think that's a far better way to respond to this than either putting the project on ice of playing tag with Hasbro's lawyers.

But parodies are totally legal.

And technically, all fan art is essentially parodies.

Especially when they don't turn a profit away from the franchise.

And I'll admit, the fan work is better than Hasbro can make, and it's to be expected because at least artist put their heart into it. Not that lack of love from a Chinese assembly line.

Hasbro doesn't care about their fans, they only care about money. But doing this was a BAD decision in my opinion.

Because it could very well go beyond the boundaries of stepping on freedom of expression vs a trademark lawsuit - since the game was essentially non-profit.

But Hasbro shouldn't have any right to shut down artists who've done nothing but express their love for them.

And unfortunately, it can't be OC ponies.

It can't be ponies period says Faust.

People argue that if it wasn't for Hasbro, we wouldn't get MLPG4.

No, it's because of loving heartfelt artists like Faust that such wonders came into existence.

Money makes it move, but they shouldn't "own" it. The artists should. And generally artists are more welcoming of fan art.