Hasbro is going after a pony plushie maker on DA

[Stuntmang]

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

When a company does not actively enforce their copyright, they will lose it, which means they could lose EVERYTHING. And that would be bad for all of us!

Show me an example of this happening from fan-produced content alone.

[Al-1701]

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

This is more of an issue of dilution of trademark.  (Which someone already mentioned.)  If they let her make plush toys without expressed permission, it weakens their claim to the trademarks.  I doubt she would try to make a claim of their trademarks, but its the slippery slope argument.  As for hiring her, there's more legal issues as Hasbro's vendors might squeak if they her on.

[Malicieuse]

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

That still doesn't give you the right to take the creation of someone else and start selling it...
If you would make some art, post it online and someone else prints and sells it without your approval, is that ok? The original artist wasn't planning on doing that so by your logic that is just fine.

[StarFaerie]

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

It limits Hasbro from being able to sell their own plushies in the long run as it can cause them to lose control of their copyright which loses Hasbro money, which loses the shareholders of Hasbro money, many of who are ordinary Americans, retirees and people's 401K, which affects the US tax revenue. Plus Hasbro made a loss last year which they cannot keep affording to do otherwise they'll go under and we will no longer have any new ponies at all. So everyone really.

[Stuntmang]

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

That still doesn't give you the right to take the creation of someone else and start selling it...
If you would make some art, post it online and someone else prints and sells it without your approval, is that ok? The original artist wasn't planning on doing that so by your logic that is just fine.

Because making plushies of characters from your own pattern is the exact same thing as taking art, making zero changes to it, and selling it.

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

It limits Hasbro from being able to sell their own plushies in the long run as it can cause them to lose control of their copyright which loses Hasbro money, which loses the shareholders of Hasbro money, many of who are ordinary Americans, retirees and people's 401K, which affects the US tax revenue. Plus Hasbro made a loss last year which they cannot keep affording to do otherwise they'll go under and we will no longer have any new ponies at all. So everyone really.

Once again, show me an example of this happening from fan-created content alone.

[xeevee]

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

When a company does not actively enforce their copyright, they will lose it, which means they could lose EVERYTHING. And that would be bad for all of us!

Show me an example of this happening from fan-produced content alone.

 I'm with you stuntmang.  It is one thing to go and open a shop that directly competes with hasbro.  It is a complete other thing when it is a small time person making things by commission.  I know they are in their rights, but their rights are stupid.  And you can't go to pony fairs, see people selling plushes go, 'oh nice, we love that kind of thing' and then turn around and call out the lawyers.  It is inconsistent and confusing.

Also, they do enforce their copyright, doing this doesn't change anything.  You only need to keep making things under copyright to enforce it.

[StarFaerie]

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

That still doesn't give you the right to take the creation of someone else and start selling it...
If you would make some art, post it online and someone else prints and sells it without your approval, is that ok? The original artist wasn't planning on doing that so by your logic that is just fine.

Because making plushies of characters from your own pattern is the exact same thing as taking art, making zero changes to it, and selling it.

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

It limits Hasbro from being able to sell their own plushies in the long run as it can cause them to lose control of their copyright which loses Hasbro money, which loses the shareholders of Hasbro money, many of who are ordinary Americans, retirees and people's 401K, which affects the US tax revenue. Plus Hasbro made a loss last year which they cannot keep affording to do otherwise they'll go under and we will no longer have any new ponies at all. So everyone really.

Once again, show me an example of this happening from fan-created content alone.

Show me examples of where they were able to enforce it after defacto permitting this.

[Malicieuse]

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

That still doesn't give you the right to take the creation of someone else and start selling it...
If you would make some art, post it online and someone else prints and sells it without your approval, is that ok? The original artist wasn't planning on doing that so by your logic that is just fine.

Because making plushies of characters from your own pattern is the exact same thing as taking art, making zero changes to it, and selling it.

She still took a character and design that she did not create nor owns.
Just because she put more effort into it than just printing something out doesn't change that.

[Vintergatan]

I think we´ve already found out on another topic that Hasbro indeed does hire a third party  law-firm. I too am surprised that they don't actually have a legal department of their own though, but that just seems to be the way it is.

As for the whole issue, I think my opinion on how copyright works etc has already been voiced numerous times and thus my sentiments are definitely not that people like WhiteDove are thieves. While I do agree that companies have the full legal right to go after these people that are indeed using Hasbro's copyrighted IP I don't feel that she is doing anything wrong. As Stuntmang pointed out, no one is losing out on these sales. The only issue might be that Hasbro is indeed looking to produce and sell similar items in which case these plushies would be seen as competition. That, and she is really hight profile.
I appreciate that Hasbro has been very supportive to the customizing community and such but this might have been a bit too much for them? No idea, it´s hard to know how such a huge company thinks. So many things might be going on behind the scenes. Maybe one CEO found it endearing that people love these products enough to make fan art and the other thinks it´s theft and is harmful to the company. Who knows ^^

Since Hasbro does have the legal right to stop productions of this kind maybe they just thought it would be better to keep it more underground in stead of high profile and have done this as a warning to the community to keep it down a bit. Either way, I can completely see both sides in this.

[Catlein]

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

When a company does not actively enforce their copyright, they will lose it, which means they could lose EVERYTHING. And that would be bad for all of us!

Show me an example of this happening from fan-produced content alone.

 I'm with you stuntmang.  It is one thing to go and open a shop that directly competes with hasbro.  It is a complete other thing when it is a small time person making things by commission.  I know they are in their rights, but their rights are stupid.  And you can't go to pony fairs, see people selling plushes go, 'oh nice, we love that kind of thing' and then turn around and call out the lawyers.  It is inconsistent and confusing.

Also, they do enforce their copyright, doing this doesn't change anything.  You only need to keep making things under copyright to enforce it.

I think the issue here was that most people don't make in the tens of thousands of dollars in a year (add up the Ebay sales). Most of the customizers on the Arena talk about how they aren't really making huge profits. WD was supposedly doing this full time. I am pretty sure the hobbyists are safe (AKA people who aren't making a living wage off their stuff).

[Stuntmang]

This type of attitude makes me a sad panda. When you start siding with the corporations, you start to lose your soul.

Yeah, people/companies who wish to protect or keep control of their own creations are so mean. : P

Again, who is losing money from the production of these plushies?

That still doesn't give you the right to take the creation of someone else and start selling it...
If you would make some art, post it online and someone else prints and sells it without your approval, is that ok? The original artist wasn't planning on doing that so by your logic that is just fine.

Because making plushies of characters from your own pattern is the exact same thing as taking art, making zero changes to it, and selling it.

She still took a character and design that she did not create nor owns.
Just because she put more effort into it than just printing something out doesn't change that.

It actually does. This isn't a case of mass production of the characters, this is handmade, high quality stuff. Hasbro isn't going to be releasing 1000 dollar plushies, they're going to make cheap 20 dollar ones. They're not going to lose money on this. If I did art and someone drew a character from said art, then sold the art, I wouldn't care as long as they said something about me being the creator of said character. I'm not going to lose money or fans from that, and will likely gain fans.

[mlpfan]

like I said. if hasbro really  wanted to stop people from selling custom plushies all they have to do is have there lawyers contact ebay and that would be that, then anything that was listed as a my little pony plush would get flagged and taken down, but they don't ,they let people do it.

[Iris Patch]

Either way, it was generous of Hasbro to allow her to keep her gallery up. I've heard stories about fan-products from other franchises having to be destroyed because of these kinds of legal issues. I would cry so hard if I had to destroy something I spent hours slaving over to appease a judge!

[sd_dreamcrystal]

My only problem with this is "Why go after only one person?" Well as far as we know it's only been one.... There are several people out there who are making customs of the FiM Characters, from dolls to plushies and even artwork... It doesn't make sense to me really...

[Iris Patch]

My only problem with this is "Why go after only one person?" Well as far as we know it's only been one.... There are several people out there who are making customs of the FiM Characters, from dolls to plushies and even artwork... It doesn't make sense to me really...

I hate to be all ominous, but I think this is only the beginning.