Hasbro Forces Closure of MLP: Online
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Recommended Videos
As you say, Hasbro could easily have spotted earlier that this was almost certainly going to be a problem, an pre-empted the launch with a letter saying "We'll send a C&D if you launch". But their lawyers would only have started prodding them to do something once it was live. If they don't generally care about fan-stuff, it's probable no one at Hasbro was paying any attention to the project before their lawyers started getting anxious!-Dragmire- said:
If a copyright-infringing product is not making any money then it is more likely that it'll be permitted, but it doesn't automatically safeguard you. The number of people who view/use the product is often far more important than whether or not anyone pays for it.-Dragmire- said:
For example, I could probably get away with printing five Spiderman T-shirts and selling them to my friends. But I probably couldn't get away with printing five thousand T-shirts and giving them out for free in Trafalgar Square.
Did half the people who are commenting here not read the article, or do they just not know the difference between copyright and trademark? Because this isn't about copyright, STOP BRINGING UP COPYRIGHT.
- Copyright is just about who has the right to copy an image, a piece of music, ext.
- Trademark is like Micky Mouse. You can't just put Micky Mouse in your game because Disney Owns him. Even if Disney likes what you're doing, they HAVE TO tell you to stop. If they don't, they loose their Trademark and now anyone can use Micky how ever they want. Warner Brothers could start making and releasing Micky Mouse Cartoons.
In short, Trademark law is a *****. Hasbro really had no choice.
- Copyright is just about who has the right to copy an image, a piece of music, ext.
- Trademark is like Micky Mouse. You can't just put Micky Mouse in your game because Disney Owns him. Even if Disney likes what you're doing, they HAVE TO tell you to stop. If they don't, they loose their Trademark and now anyone can use Micky how ever they want. Warner Brothers could start making and releasing Micky Mouse Cartoons.
In short, Trademark law is a *****. Hasbro really had no choice.
In their defense people were doing that for the majority of US history.FelixG said:
It's just that once they get big they start suing anyone else that tries.
Edit: Not because they want to anymore, they have to, before anyone stabs me for saying it.
the Mayans was right, the end is coming. in the form of brony rage [small]*dives under table and covers head with arms*[/small]
i hate to say this, but they were right to take it down. you can't earn a large profit on another company's interracial property without having them give you the permission first. but them again, this is hasbro. so my bet is that they'll hire them and make them make it. The system works.
i hate to say this, but they were right to take it down. you can't earn a large profit on another company's interracial property without having them give you the permission first. but them again, this is hasbro. so my bet is that they'll hire them and make them make it. The system works.
Yeah, that is certainly true. I think they only really target the HD uploads though, and couldn't really care less about SD quality ones. Of course, the majority are 720p/1080p. And yeah, it's pretty much got to a stage where you can't not find every FiM episode so far on YouTube.TopazFusion said:
There have also been cases of MLP fan card games being shut down, but that is also for fair reasons because Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast I believe, and there are official FiM trading cards now.
I did say, maybe they are harder on MLP than they are on TransformersTopazFusion said:
Because as i said, i have never noticed TFP eps been taken down, plus if it's the 3rd ep of the new season its no surprise they are getting taken down, give it a month and they wont bother with that particular ep 
Well, the game was a steaming pile anyway so no great loss to be had there. Although, you couldn't have shut down Welcome to Ponyville instead? I mean, MLP:Online at least had potential.
To be honest, there's only one good fangame in the pipeline everything else looks/has been pretty shite, if that gets hit with a Cease and Desist I'll be pretty upset.
To be honest, there's only one good fangame in the pipeline everything else looks/has been pretty shite, if that gets hit with a Cease and Desist I'll be pretty upset.
Good. [http://cdn.grumpycats.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Nov-4v3-625x416.jpg]
It probably would have degenerated into something like Second Life after a few months anyway, if all this Brony talk is to be believed.
It probably would have degenerated into something like Second Life after a few months anyway, if all this Brony talk is to be believed.
A trademark is meant to uniquely distinguish your brand and thus avoid consumer confusion. If the trademark holder allows others to use their trademarks without permission then it stops being an unique identifier and the trademark no longer serves its purpose thus the law will no longer protect it.XMark said:
In this case they really should not have called the game My Little Pony: Online without getting permission to use that name.