Well sure, if you go into threads assuming bad faith, you're gonna see that. *shrug*

Honestly I can't see any of what you're getting at, sorry. I thought the conversation was perfectly civil and fair... heck I'd have been the first to speak up if I thought anything was toeing the line. A lot of the discussion didn't even directly mention/reference PB, and when she WAS directly mentioned it was almost always with the sidenote of support for the photo thing. Serena, you didn't even speak up until after the situation had apparently been resolved this morning - if you have such strong feelings on the subject then why not say something earlier...?

If i were in PBs position and I read all of that while I was already going through a tough time, while people are already seemingly treating me as though I'm ridiculous for thinking BF might have taken inspiration from my work in addition to stealing my photos, I would have thought I was being told not to send the C&D for the sake of the rest of the community and fan-projects and that if would be my fault if that happened. If you don't see how it can look that way, I really don't know what to tell you!

Heh, I thought you didn't want us speculating on potential repercussions this thread could have?

The difference being that I'm speculating on something that might have actually happened- notice that I made my initial comment after people pointed out the possibility of PB leaving the community as a result of this?

if you have such strong feelings on the subject then why not say something earlier...?

I didn't see the comments about potential blowback from Hasbro (and worry that PB might leave the community- which was my primary reason for making that initial comment) until moments before I made my comment. I had no other issue with this conversation, except for perhaps the way people were refuting PB's allegations that BF copied her customs- which I think in hindsight could have been responded to with a lot more grace.

I'll just say again that I wasn't "tossing anyone under the bus"

That's what it looked like to me, regardless of whether or not that was the intended read- which, for the record, I assume it wasn't. Or rather, I worried PB would think that was what was being communicated once the conversation turned into "hasbro might get litigious if you send that and put other projects in jeopardy", especially after it was brought up that it looked like PB was closing down her accounts shortly after.

once again I 100% supported the photos being taken down.

Never said you didn't!

 

Do I think the accusations of theft were silly, yes, do I think a C&D was a major overreaction

A C&D is standard procedure when your work has been stolen (even if it's just a few pictures) and is not that big of a deal. Basic fun isn't going to quit making ponies because of it.

and more likely to lead to Very Bad Things

And I think bringing that up as a consequence in conjunction with a refutation of PB's claim that her work was copied, looks like you're blaming her (even if that wasn't the intent) rather than Basic Fun for starting this by using somebody else's photos without permission.

(again- I was worried it could come back on Pandabear herself - you keep painting this narrative of "you guys only care about new ponies!!" and I have no idea where you're getting that from??

Well there's this, among other comments in the thread:

Let's not screw up future releases for the rest of the community by throwing a hissy fit over designs that were copied from official art. Because that's rather hypocritical and frankly it would make us look super ungrateful.

I hope all of this doesn't scare Basic Fun off from making more original characters later.

I didn't come up with this narrative out of nowhere.

I was impressed at how civil and thought-out the discussion was up to this point.

I agree- up until the point where the future of BF's releases and the futures of other fan-made pony projects came into the conversation, and definitely after it seemed like PB was going to leave. At that point it seemed like too much blame was being placed on PB's shoulders when it would have been a lot easier to politely refute her claims of copying and have a little more empathy for a community member who felt slighted by BF, whether or not it was intentional.

But at the same time I admit I disagree with the notion of deleting the last few pages. To me that smacks of censorship, thought control, etc. How does that saying go... "those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it". The idea of just pretending the last few pages didn't happen doesn't sit well with me.

I'm inclined to agree, but I thought the previous pages (before this) had enough value to justify keeping it and removing the rest instead of starting a whole new thread. Maybe these parts can be moved and archived instead of deleted? I don't know. Edit: I didn't realize this conversation started on the first page of this thread lol. Must have mixed it up with a different thread. Okay, yeah, a new thread is a good idea!

And that's all I have left to say about this

Agreed. I've said all I need to say. Sorry if you felt like I was coming out to get you, I wasn't talking about one particular person when I made my comment, and I'm sorry that I overreacted. I just think this situation could have been handled in a much more positive, empathetic way than it was, and I hope we'll do better if this ever happens again.

 Raising that concern wasn't creating drama or overreacting

We'll have to disagree. Overstating harm (especially overstating potential harm) is not productive, and it certainly wasn't in this situation.

hindsight moralising is disingenuous.

Nah

A lot of this response is incredibly overblown and I think ya'll are doing way too much for speculating like that about something so insignificant.

It would have been really easy to say "wow, that's horrible, we should all DM Basic Fun and ask them to apologize and remove the photos, but also it's a little screwed up to accuse them of stealing your designs when you didn't invent the Celestial Ponies and they barely resemble your versions- maybe don't do that?" but somehow this evolved into "if you send that C&D, Hasbro and Basic Fun might never make new ponies again and they'll shut down all of the fan projects!!"

It's fine to argue with a fan-artist about the originality of their work and refute the claim that BF stole their designs and question them for requesting a boycott, but it's pretty screwed up to speculate and catastrophize about an imaginary future in which Hasbro cracks down and starts filing DMCAs on fan works of any kind as a result of a singular C&D sent by one customizer.  To argue with the veracity of the claim that Basic Fun stole her designs is one thing, to act like her C&D has the potential to be the downfall of the community is a whole other. I would also shut down my accounts if I were being preemptively blamed for such an offense, so it's no surprise if she has.

To be clear, PB was 100% inarguably correct to issue a C&D in response to her photos being used as listing images by BF- that part of her C&D was completely valid. If that C&D were to result in Hasbro cracking down on fanworks (it won't), it would be Basic Fun's fault for not understanding the ethics of stealing photos from an artist in the community that they are trying to sell product to. They poked the nest.

Hasbro is a corporation. Basic Fun is a corporation. They get C&Ds all the time, ones that are much worse and much more valid than this, ones that have been sent directly to them and not a separate company licensing their property, ones that have been sent by much larger groups than a single MLP artist. This is not the apocalyptic event that you think it is, and to act like it is just because it might, in some fantasy universe, cause Hasbro and Basic Fun to rethink any future endeavors to release un-released ponies is really weird, especially in a world where the HQG1C project is literally making premium, mass-produced MLP clones without issue (some of which are, in fact, based on never-released Hasbro designs or based on actual, officially released pony characters- I can think of seven at the top of my head), which Hasbro absolutely is aware of and likely has been since the first prototypes hit the internet, and clearly do not care, or they recognize that cracking down so hard on fan works would blow up in their faces.

PB might be wrong to think they based their interpretation on her customs, but it's not as big a deal as you're making it out to be and you shouldn't talk about it like it is. Hasbro isn't going to kill the fandom because of one C&D, you are just overstating harm.

If you love plastic horses so much that you're going to speculate to such a degree about the potential overarching ramifications of their very minor and easily debunked complaint, because you're scared that a corporation might not make you some new toys if they complain, you need to sit and think about whether or not you value these toys a little more than you should. I would never put that kind of blame on somebody's shoulders for something so small, even if they're wrong. 

Nice to finally see stock photos!

I don't hate them, but I do think they're much more boring than I would expect for such an anticipated release. The manes are way too short and I think the colors should have been a little lighter, maybe a pearl on the body or tinsel in the hair. A little sad the Flower Fantasy Ponies were cancelled in favor of these!

Still getting them, but definitely will be rehairs for me!

Also, why are the white one's marking so invisible lol? Much preferred the blue swirls on the prototype.

The dialogue so far is just so bad, it's a lot of telling the audience everything and not trusting them to remember or actually look at the screen lol. I'm definitely not as impressed with this series as I was with FIM; the plots are definitely a little more "complex" for MYM but they're also not very well executed. A lot of talking about things for much longer than they need to.

I get it's a kid's show, but I also think kid's are a lot more intelligent than media companies tend to give them credit for.

I'll keep watching and hope it improves (and because I think the designs are really cool and I love seeing all the new ponies) but yeah, I think it's definitely less tight than FIM was and needs a LOT of improvement imo.

Posted this in the 35th anni thread, but we have Celestial Ponies coming from Basic Fun for the 40th anniversary! As well as a set of blindbag miniature ponies!

I can't believe they're really doing the celestials after all this time!!!

Basic Fun got back to me about the FF set!

Hi there,


We are just as excited as you are – trust me!


But it seems that all of our big news will happen for the 40th anniversary year which is Spring and Fall of 2023!!

 
We are saving all of the new releases for that time period when the retailers can help us promote it in a big way!!

 
Stay tuned!!

 
Unfortunately no Flower Fantasy ponies will be released at this time.  We do apologize about that.

 

Best,

Steph

I'm not sure if this means the FF ponies will be released in 2023 as part of an expanded 40th anniversary collection, or if they've been cancelled entirely in favor of the 40th anniversary lines- either way I'm disappointed since I was really looking forward to the FF ponies.

The bit about retailer promotion somewhat implies to me that the larger retailers will be selling stock of the 40th anniversary collection, which sounds really great!

Sure hope we get some new ponies for the 40th instead of a redone set of Collector's Pose ponies. :/