MLP Fighting is Magic is dead, long live MLP Fighting is Magic

[The Rogue Wolf]

This is almost the opposite of true, while Hasbro certainly sends out C&D's and protects its IP, it isn't even close to the level that Disney it at, not just in intention, but in physical resources as well. Hasbro lets episodes of its HUB channel shows exist on Youtube for weeks at a time, and even after that only makes a small token effort to take any down, and only really even does it with MLP (the rest of the channels shows remain pretty much untouched).

But... but corporations are always evil! And it's not like failing to protect its copyrights ever hurt Hasbro! Y'know, except for how it couldn't even use most of the previous-generation characters in FiM because it hadn't protected its copyrights.

 

[EternallyBored]

This is almost the opposite of true, while Hasbro certainly sends out C&D's and protects its IP, it isn't even close to the level that Disney it at, not just in intention, but in physical resources as well. Hasbro lets episodes of its HUB channel shows exist on Youtube for weeks at a time, and even after that only makes a small token effort to take any down, and only really even does it with MLP (the rest of the channels shows remain pretty much untouched).

But... but corporations are always evil! And it's not like failing to protect its copyrights ever hurt Hasbro! Y'know, except for how it couldn't even use most of the previous-generation characters in FiM because it hadn't protected its copyrights.

Just as a point of clarification, Hasbro didn't lose the names to the G1 ponies because it didn't fight to protect them or anything like that, they just failed to keep their names registered and let the trademarks expire, once expired they became part of the public domain, Hasbro probably could have resecured them if they really wanted to, but they didn't want to waste the time or money for a toyline where the characters maintain no concrete consistency or personality between generations, that and after the G1 cartoon ended, they didn't think the MLP line would last as long as it did, the entire toy line has been on the chopping block multiple times over the decades before G4 rolled in and blew the MLP line up into one of Hasbro's most lucrative properties right next to Transformers.

I think that's what you were saying anyway, and I agree, but I though I should clarify that point since I've met quite a few people that operate under the misconception that a company has to be just as paranoid and litigious as Disney, or the Government steps in and takes their IP from them.

 

[Norithics]

Mane6 is now going to have to prove to Hasbro that they had no involvement with it.

I think it's fairly obvious they didn't have anything to do with it (mostly due to, you know, having so much to lose), and now that their required part is done, I really doubt the company cares that much in the face of the waterfall of money being thrown at them. As long as they get to keep their IP, the whole thing's like an incidental commercial for them.

 

[tippy2k2]

(and even that is dubious, what are Hasbro's options there, send out another C&D and make the fans take it down from their own website?)

If they so choose, they could absolutely demolish someone's financial life (and destroy their company if it's a company that has done it) by suing for damages to the name. Usually they'd shut down the site in question like the first time but since these people went for forgiveness rather than permission, Hasbro would be well within it's rights to sue the people responsible into oblivion for this. However...

This is almost the opposite of true, while Hasbro certainly sends out C&D's and protects its IP, it isn't even close to the level that Disney it at, not just in intention, but in physical resources as well. Hasbro lets episodes of its HUB channel shows exist on Youtube for weeks at a time, and even after that only makes a small token effort to take any down, and only really even does it with MLP (the rest of the channels shows remain pretty much untouched).

Hasbro has also made zero effort to eliminate things that directly compete with their toy lines, unless the makers are obviously and visibly making a significant profit on it.

The few news stories I saw about Hasbro enforcing it has always been against toys and stuffed animals and whatnot. I assumed that Hasbro fought all cases with that kind of ferocity and we just didn't hear about it; if that's not the case, this group may not be crushed as I would expect from most companies. Since the cat is out, they may just let it go if what you're saying is correct, which would kind of be a win for everyone.

 

[Lunar Templar]

That's... remarkable stupid of whomever did it... Hasbro WILL get a C&D on the game, as they've shown already, and all it will do is fracture the brony fandom more than it already is. That said, the game itself looks like a modified Mugen engine with the Mane 6 fighting (Why? Why not?) which I could see as a big reason Hasbro ordered the C&D in the first place.

What's Hasbro gonna do? The game is 'finished' so to speak, so nothing to 'cease and desist' since the game has been upload for free download to least one torrent site, as of yesterday when I found out about it, and like many more by now.

They can't yell at Mane 6 for this, cause it wasn't them that 'finished it'(they're working on a new game with the same theme with the Skull Girls engine). Can't really yell at the people that did finish by slapping them with a C&D cause it's 'finished' and up for download. Best they can do is try to take down the download links for it, but I doubt they'll make any real effort at that.

 

[Leemaster777]

*big ol' snip*

Thank you. Whenever Fighting is Magic gets brought up, there are so many people who immediately jump on the Hasbro hate-train, just because they're a big company protecting their IP.

As a fan of both MLP and Transformers, I can vouch for how cool they generally are with fan-projects and the like. It's like you said: The thing that really killed Fighting is Magic the first time was it's own popularity. Hasbro really HAD to take action at that point.

Hasbro generally does everything it can to please its fanbases. In my experience, they only do things that result in negative publicity if they absolutely have to. Call me a Hasbro fanboy if you must, but really, the guys at Hasbro just seem like generally cool dudes.

OT: Yay, FiM is back. Glad to see it's back in some form or another. And the best part is that since it's been put up like this, there's very little chance that Hasbro will be forced to take action against it.