Hasbro is going after a pony plushie maker on DA

[kamakazee82]

... there is no example to give ... BUT hasbro stopped enforcing their copyright/trademark on the transformer name bumble bee ... other companies picked it up for other products ... hasbro has a huge uphill battle to try a nd get it to use for the new movies the past few years ... i don't think they ever really got it back ...

... hasbro also stopped enforcing the cr/tm on the G1 ponies and now cannot use them without being able to protect them, opening them up for lawsuits (thus why we won't see many or any old G1's as official G1 names/colors/types) ...

in this case if hasbro doesn't put up a fight against someone infringing on their copyrights and trademarks they will lose their protections on their intellectual property, allowing anyone and everyone to pretty much steal their ideas from them ...

hasbro has every right to protect their ideas and properties that they have trademarked and copyrighted in order to preserve their protections on their own properties.

just because it's "one person" doesn't mean it's right to use someone elses ideas for their own personal gain. she could have designed her own characters and been fine. or sold them as "plush colored horses" and changed something about them and been fine ... but if you steal someone's ideas it's wrong ... be it another person, a corporation, a nameless/faceless artist on the internet, an author, a doctor, a student, whatever. using something that isn't yours for personal gain is just morally ethically wrong. why should it have to be defended?
 
yeah whitedove plushes are amazing and kudos that they go for that much ... but i know what it's like to have something stolen and used without my permission and see that pther person make a crapload of money off it ... one person or a corporation if it isn't yours, don't go there ... that's my stance ... hasbro is just trying to cover their butts and keep their protections in place ... and they chose white dove ... can't help that ... it's all over the internet ... it's how the cookie crumbles when you're the one who put your hand in the neighbor's cookie jar ...

[Stuntmang]

... there is no example to give ... BUT hasbro stopped enforcing their copyright/trademark on the transformer name bumble bee ... other companies picked it up for other products ... hasbro has a huge uphill battle to try a nd get it to use for the new movies the past few years ... i don't think they ever really got it back ...

... hasbro also stopped enforcing the cr/tm on the G1 ponies and now cannot use them without being able to protect them, opening them up for lawsuits (thus why we won't see many or any old G1's as official G1 names/colors/types) ...

in this case if hasbro doesn't put up a fight against someone infringing on their copyrights and trademarks they will lose their protections on their intellectual property, allowing anyone and everyone to pretty much steal their ideas from them ...

hasbro has every right to protect their ideas and properties that they have trademarked and copyrighted in order to preserve their protections on their own properties.

just because it's "one person" doesn't mean it's right to use someone elses ideas for their own personal gain. she could have designed her own characters and been fine. or sold them as "plush colored horses" and changed something about them and been fine ... but if you steal someone's ideas it's wrong ... be it another person, a corporation, a nameless/faceless artist on the internet, an author, a doctor, a student, whatever. using something that isn't yours for personal gain is just morally ethically wrong. why should it have to be defended?
 
yeah whitedove plushes are amazing and kudos that they go for that much ... but i know what it's like to have something stolen and used without my permission and see that pther person make a crapload of money off it ... one person or a corporation if it isn't yours, don't go there ... that's my stance ... hasbro is just trying to cover their butts and keep their protections in place ... and they chose white dove ... can't help that ... it's all over the internet ... it's how the cookie crumbles when you're the one who put your hand in the neighbor's cookie jar ...

Exactly. Companies. Not individuals handmaking bumblebee toys, large companies cranking out production lines of Bumblebee. I have no problem with Hasbro cracking down on knockoffs, but if it's one person handmaking the plushies, it's a jerk move.

[Al-1701]

Hasbro made almost $400 last year in profit.  They lost money the first quarter of this year.

[LadyMoondancer]

Well, this seems rather petty of Hasbro to me.  It's not like the people spending hundreds of dollars on plushies are going to run out and buy their $10 crappy Uncanny Valley plush Twilight Sparkle from Toys R Us if they can't access "good" plushies.  They're within their rights technically, but c'mon.

It's no different from people paying money for commissions of pony art.   Are those people going to buy clip-art FIM decals if Hasbro starts cracking down on fan-artists next?  I think not.


I do not believe that fan-art, fan-videos, fan-plushes, fan-anything truly threatens Hasbro's copyrights/trademarks.   If they did, Marvel Comics and DC would long ago have lost the rights to their characters, as they've been bought and sold in a myriad of fan-forms for decades.

[StoryDreamer]

It's probably that a fellow artist ratted her out.

[egyptiondragon]

i would think hasbro would instead of trying to get rid of people that make these awesome plushes they would try to work with them to better their own products i mean if people are makeing money off of plushes becuz they make them better than hasbro does wouldnt hasbro want a peace of that money

[StoryDreamer]

I think legally there is a perceived loss.  And that's enough to send your dogs to a fight.

It doesn't matter if they're losing money that could be quantified.  They spend money for production, intellectual copyright, patents, etc. There will be a perceived loss.

Yes, Hasbro has a third-party law firm handle their legal matters in different departments. All companies do. I know just working for lawyers/being married to one that for example Target, Chilis, Macys, Dillards, etc all have outside law firms.  Sometimes that's more cost effective.

[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.

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.

No, it doesn't. It doesn't change the fact that she did not create this character. So if the real creator/owner doesn't want this to happen they have every right to act. That's pretty much it.
It doesn't matter how expensive those plush are or how annoying it is. And like others have mentioned there is a difference between making a couple of customs and turning something like that into your job. Frankly, i think setting up a "business" around creating characters you do not own is not such a great move. At least you should be aware the original creator might take you down.

[xeevee]

... there is no example to give ... BUT hasbro stopped enforcing their copyright/trademark on the transformer name bumble bee ... other companies picked it up for other products ... hasbro has a huge uphill battle to try a nd get it to use for the new movies the past few years ... i don't think they ever really got it back ...

... hasbro also stopped enforcing the cr/tm on the G1 ponies and now cannot use them without being able to protect them, opening them up for lawsuits (thus why we won't see many or any old G1's as official G1 names/colors/types) ...

in this case if hasbro doesn't put up a fight against someone infringing on their copyrights and trademarks they will lose their protections on their intellectual property, allowing anyone and everyone to pretty much steal their ideas from them ...

hasbro has every right to protect their ideas and properties that they have trademarked and copyrighted in order to preserve their protections on their own properties.

just because it's "one person" doesn't mean it's right to use someone elses ideas for their own personal gain. she could have designed her own characters and been fine. or sold them as "plush colored horses" and changed something about them and been fine ... but if you steal someone's ideas it's wrong ... be it another person, a corporation, a nameless/faceless artist on the internet, an author, a doctor, a student, whatever. using something that isn't yours for personal gain is just morally ethically wrong. why should it have to be defended?
 
yeah whitedove plushes are amazing and kudos that they go for that much ... but i know what it's like to have something stolen and used without my permission and see that pther person make a crapload of money off it ... one person or a corporation if it isn't yours, don't go there ... that's my stance ... hasbro is just trying to cover their butts and keep their protections in place ... and they chose white dove ... can't help that ... it's all over the internet ... it's how the cookie crumbles when you're the one who put your hand in the neighbor's cookie jar ...

Those are cases of trademark NOT copyright.  You own the copyright on your product, the trademark on names.  The people who made the bumblebee toy, didn't make a bumblebee transformer.  You keep both trademark and copyright if you continue using the names/product.  Copyright actually lasts for 70years after you stop making things.  You do not have to go around shutting down customisers to keep your copyright or trademark.

[kamakazee82]

... there is no example to give ... BUT hasbro stopped enforcing their copyright/trademark on the transformer name bumble bee ... other companies picked it up for other products ... hasbro has a huge uphill battle to try a nd get it to use for the new movies the past few years ... i don't think they ever really got it back ...

... hasbro also stopped enforcing the cr/tm on the G1 ponies and now cannot use them without being able to protect them, opening them up for lawsuits (thus why we won't see many or any old G1's as official G1 names/colors/types) ...

in this case if hasbro doesn't put up a fight against someone infringing on their copyrights and trademarks they will lose their protections on their intellectual property, allowing anyone and everyone to pretty much steal their ideas from them ...

hasbro has every right to protect their ideas and properties that they have trademarked and copyrighted in order to preserve their protections on their own properties.

just because it's "one person" doesn't mean it's right to use someone elses ideas for their own personal gain. she could have designed her own characters and been fine. or sold them as "plush colored horses" and changed something about them and been fine ... but if you steal someone's ideas it's wrong ... be it another person, a corporation, a nameless/faceless artist on the internet, an author, a doctor, a student, whatever. using something that isn't yours for personal gain is just morally ethically wrong. why should it have to be defended?
 
yeah whitedove plushes are amazing and kudos that they go for that much ... but i know what it's like to have something stolen and used without my permission and see that pther person make a crapload of money off it ... one person or a corporation if it isn't yours, don't go there ... that's my stance ... hasbro is just trying to cover their butts and keep their protections in place ... and they chose white dove ... can't help that ... it's all over the internet ... it's how the cookie crumbles when you're the one who put your hand in the neighbor's cookie jar ...

Exactly. Companies. Not individuals handmaking bumblebee toys, large companies cranking out production lines of Bumblebee. I have no problem with Hasbro cracking down on knockoffs, but if it's one person handmaking the plushies, it's a jerk move.

the point being if they don't make a move to protect their ideas thant he BIG COMPANIES CAN move in to market their products against them ... so they are showing an active protection of their cr/tm'd ideas in order to preserve that ... if they didn't put their fot down and a big company came in and started making plushes than hasbro wouldn't be able to hold up the cr/tm in court and WOULD lose millions ... they have to actively use their protections to keep them ... and this is a highly note worthy artist infringing on their protections and they have decided to put their foot down to show that yes, they do want to continue their protections on their own ideas ...

it isn't that i'ts been lost to a small one off, but if they allow a one off to be making thousands and thousands of dollars of their protected ideas it's like a big red flag saying "we give up and here, anyone can use this" whichis exactly what happened with the bumblebee name ... the name was never used for a yellow/black transforming car, but the name was used and hasbro didn't fight and there fore they lost the protections and you can see all sorts of knock off products, just like you see with MLP, though that get's hairier in that you see more current gen knock offs than older gen ... which are still protected ...

it's a pre-emptive move instead of reactive move ...
 
as for "not using it" things have changed ... if you show lack of interest in protecting it, then it's a slippery slope in court to defend and you can lose your idea. and there's the issue of the infriger making THOUASANDS of dollars on ideas that aren't theirs ... a stolen idea is still stolen. and wrong.

[TokiBear]

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

And I hate ^this type of attitude!  While WD does make absolutely amazing plushies... she is making thousands of dollars on these plushies... That is most likely why she is being targeted by Hasbro and frankly, I believe Hasbro has every right to protect their copyright.  Selling fan-art of any kind really is illegal regardless of how much you are making on that fan-art.  I definitely understand wanting to pay good money for great quality merch but that doesn't change the fact that it is illegal. 

If any of you saw your ponysana's out there being turned into custom plushies and being sold for thousands of dollars and you didn't get a piece of it, I'm sure you'd be singing a different tune.  Just because Hasbro is a big corporation doesn't mean they don't have the same rights as all of us little guys.  Copyrights were put into place for a reason and it definitely wasn't so us little guys could make thousands of dollars off of someone else's ideas.

[xeevee]

No one is arguing that they don't have the right.  It's just a bit heartless to start attacking customisers out of the blue when you've said you don't mind and admired it (I mean they made a blank pony FOR customising) in the past.  Especially when the person isn't actually taking money from them, or claiming they are official or any of that. 

Disney once forced a childcare centre to paint over a mural that had disney characters in it.  Did they have the right?  Yes.  Was it right?  No.

[LadyMoondancer]

It seems a little strange to me that so many people would argue on Hasbro's behalf on a forum with a thriving customs board, which are certainly no different from those plushies in Hasbro's eyes.   When you sell "Baby Rarity" or a Celestia painted to be Nightmare Moon or a sculpture of this or that pony, you are infringing just as much as this person was.   I hope Hasbro doesn't turn its fiery gaze over here.


visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[kamakazee82]

customizing is NOT infringing.

customizing is creating your own pony from your OWN idea or changing things to make an idea different, not flat out taking an idea that isn't yours and creating an exact replica of itand making a thousand dollars on it without paying royalties (like 'we love fine' in order to use those characters and likenesses.

a "baby rarity" toy/character has not been protected while a plush "hasbro my little pony rarity" is certainly protected.
 
was it right for the childcare center to use ideas that weren't their own in a mural without asking permission to use them? no. if they had asked permission to use the characters from disney and disney had agreed (as they have done elsewhere and actually provided the mural creation services themselves free of cost) there would have been no problem.

[Elisto]

Well, not everyone here is exactly pro-custom, but I'm not sure I'd consider plushies customs anyway... customs to me are redecorated plastic toys.