Hasbro is going after a pony plushie maker on DA

[HawaiianRain]

Here's something I scraped off another site. I DO believe the not she was sent by DA staff was real. If you read through the post is names the same firm and who they represent. It's not pony related but still deals with the topic at hand.

Re: Infringement of SCRABBLE® Crossword Game Copyrights and Trademarks

Dear (Rackaroo owners):

We are counsel for Hasbro, Inc. (“Hasbro”), the owner of the copyrights and trademarks in the United States and Canada for the SCRABBLE® crossword game. Hasbro also owns the copyrights in all editions of the Official Scrabble Player’s Dictionary (“OSPD”), including the 4th edition (“OSPD4”). We recently became aware that you are making available on your website at www.rackaroo.com a game that you call “Free Online Scrabble.” In addition, you offer for sale on the iTunes Store a game called “Wordaroo,” with a free version called “Wordaroo Lite.” Both Rackaroo and Wordaroo include the OSPD4.

Rackaroo is nothing more than an illegal and unauthorized copy of the SCRABBLE® game and the OSPD4. While Wordaroo and Wordaroo Lite differ from Hasbro’s SCRABBLE® game, Wordaroo also incorporates an unauthorized copy of the OSPD4, and copies several key elements of the game including the look of the letter tiles, the point values assigned to each letter, and the use of seven tiles for each turn.

The SCRABBLE® game board, the rules of the game, and the OSPD are the copyrighted property of Hasbro. The SCRABBLE® game board and letter tiles also have source-identifying significance as trademarks.

Your unauthorized use of the SCRABBLE® game board, rules and OSPD constitutes copyright infringement in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 501. Your unauthorized use of the SCRABBLE® name, game board and letter tiles violates the trademark laws, including 15 U.S.C. §§ 1114(1) and 1125(a), by creating a likelihood of confusion with respect to Hasbro’s authorization or sponsorship of or association with your commercial activities and is also likely to dilute the distinctive qualities of the SCRABBLE® marks in violation of 15 U.S.C. §1125(c) and the anti-dilution laws of numerous states.

On behalf of Hasbro, we therefore demand that you immediately cease use of the SCRABBLE® trademarks and copyrighted material, remove the Rackaroo game from your website, and, for the Wordaroo applications (a) change the look and the specific letter-number combinations of the letter tiles, (b) change the number of tiles used in one turn from seven to some other number, and (c) remove the OSPD4 from the application.

Please confirm to me within ten days your agreement to the above. This letter does not purport to be a complete statement of the facts or the law and is without prejudice to Hasbro’s legal and equitable rights.

Sincerely yours,

Carin G. Reynolds
Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036-6710
tel: 212.336.2104
fax: 212.336.2277
[email protected]

[cobalte]

To be honest I think it was a matter of time before something like this happened, especially with how much money was being made. I'm undecided on whether it was morally "right" tho

[ShannonInPonyland]

I follow this girl on DeviantART, she makes wonderful plushies but they are awfully expensive (for me at least).
I find it strange that they told her to C&D considering Lauren Faust herself bought a plush from her only about a month ago... 
In a way I think it's unfair but mainly I think they do have the right to do it considering this girl is making a lot of money off of something that is copyrighted by Hasbro. Technically they can do something like this but I think they should only be able to have the right to tell her to stop making Hasbro MLPs (not OCs, etc).
Honestly it was just a matter of time before something like this happened since MLP is so big right now and all of these people are making plushies and making $500+ for them.

[Sonata]

Plushie makers are doing WAY too much profit for Hasbro to let it go. The quality and accuracy of those ponies in specific are the best I've seen so far, so no wonder Hasbro is concerned. But it's not so bad, they just want to remove any copyrighted names and info about them being sold/will be sold. As much as I do have an issue with fanart and all that, we all do it and it's a much complicated issue than it looks, so I won't even go there xD

[Gingerbread]

We all know WDs' plushies are amazing, so as has already been said why don't Hasbro do a little think and ask WD to design plushies for Hasbro to sell under their licence? It won't cost them overly much and would be a vast improvement on Hasbro plushies so far.

[starrypawz]

Yeah I guess it's more of a money thing since she seems to get a lot for her plushies so Hasbro are getting wary:
A while back an artist I follow was making a  Dragon Age fan art based calender and the money raised was to got to a charity. The project got super popular. She ended up getting a C and D order from EA, even though it seemed Bioware were pretty cool with it as one of the devs was aware of the project.

[xkappax]

We all know WDs' plushies are amazing, so as has already been said why don't Hasbro do a little think and ask WD to design plushies for Hasbro to sell under their licence? It won't cost them overly much and would be a vast improvement on Hasbro plushies so far.

Hasbro is a huge, cold-hearted company. What they probably WOULD do is get a few plushes off of her, either through ebay or through other means, take them apart, steal the pattern, and then send those patterns to china for their workers there to make them. It's cheaper. And money is what it all comes down to, really. Not sparing some plushie maker's feelings.

I find it strange that they told her to C&D considering Lauren Faust herself bought a plush from her only about a month ago... 

Lauren Faust is not Hasbro. Back when I started playing and making levels for LittleBigPlanet (ps3 game), the company, Media Molecule, was spotlighting levels that contained copyrighted content left and right. There were mario levels, zelda levels, a full contra remake. These people were rewarded with highest honors for taking the work of others and making it their own.

When Sony (the big cold-hearted company) got wind of this, these levels weren't allowed to be spotlighted anymore, and some were removed, depending on which copyright holders were involved.

The main bullet point is: If you are making small change off of customizing and doing it on a forum like this, the copyright holder is (most likely) going to pass you by (although I saw the Grateful Dead force to shut down a friend's tiny restaurant in backwoods Pennsylvania because they used one of their song names for the name).... but...

If you are making THAT much money off of a plush (her BASE PRICE is 400 dollars and the plushes have gone up to over 3,000 dollars in some instances) and you are selling it on ebay and advertising all over your deviantart page, they're going to take action.

... I also noticed on her deviantart page that she's continuing to take pony commissions through her email. Does she understand what a Cease and Desist means? And what's going to happen to her when she breaks it? :O They'll take her to court!

[Shaiyeh]

she's making how much money off of copyrighted material?
I am not suprpised Hasbro are taking action.
While I'd like to side with the artist in such instances, I am a bit put off by the prices and can honestly say that I don't really care - she's probably made enough to live on for a fair while already.
I would totally side with her, though, if this was just for OCs that happen to be ponies.

[RandomPony]

Oh wow! I mean.....WOW! This is just stupid!!! There her own creations! They really don't look there plushies, for there's look like bubble heads judging a pinkie pie I've seen. Or are they jealous her's look way better made then there's O.o

[StarSwirl05]

We Love Fine is different because it's got a deal with Hasbro to make the shirts.


Thinking about it, it whiffs even harder of the trolls to me. After all, they've been successful in taking the Youtube accounts down in the past. There's such a huge custom base for MLP, it really does feel odd they'd only go for one (albeit very profitable) artist.

It turns out it was Hasbro themselves that got the accounts taken down from YouTube not trolls because one user posted a video that shows a letter they got from Hasbro, stating it is them, right down to the typo in their company name. Regarding this though, I can totally see why they'd be upset but they're equally being generous enough to let the user keep the account.

[Eskara1862]

I think we're missing the point here...  Hasbro did not send the letter to WhiteDove, they sent it to DeviantArt.  They did not tell WhiteDove that she can't make the plushes. The lawyers told DeviantArt to close down her account and DevArt worked out a deal where she could keep it if she removed all mention of selling, accepting commissions, or having sold her plush in the past. There is nothing stopping her from continuing to sell her plush on message boards, eBay, Etsy, or even making her own website and selling them there.

[Sunset]

Oh wow! I mean.....WOW! This is just stupid!!! There her own creations! They really don't look there plushies, for there's look like bubble heads judging a pinkie pie I've seen. Or are they jealous her's look way better made then there's O.o

But that's just the discussion point.  The material's may be hers and and she may have put in the man hours, but what it all really comes down to is that she did not create the character "Rainbow Dash" or the design for "Rainbow Dash."  Had she been doing her own made up character this might not have happened.  If she had changed something about RD's design and *not* called her plushie "Rainbow Dash" then we might also not be having this discussion.

[Shaiyeh]

Oh wow! I mean.....WOW! This is just stupid!!! There her own creations! They really don't look there plushies, for there's look like bubble heads judging a pinkie pie I've seen. Or are they jealous her's look way better made then there's O.o

But that's just the discussion point.  The material's may be hers and and she may have put in the man hours, but what it all really comes down to is that she did not create the character "Rainbow Dash" or the design for "Rainbow Dash."  Had she been doing her own made up character this might not have happened.  If she had changed something about RD's design and *not* called her plushie "Rainbow Dash" then we might also not be having this discussion.

this exactly.
The pattern may be her own creation, but the characters most certainly aren't - which is why I can't really care to side with the artist in this discussion.

[Cool.Breeze]

I have to say it's the amount she's making off the plushies that's driving Hasbro to do something about the situation (assuming it really is Hasbro law offices that wrote the letter).

I absolutely love the custom plush scene, but I just added up her sales from April 12th to May 18th, and she made $6346.49 in about ONE MONTH! That is a huge chunck of profit to be making while riding the coat-tails of Hasbro's success. If these were ooak creations, it wouldn't be a problem, but she also wouldn't be making that kind of profit, either. I'm on the fence. I think she's providing an amazing product for fans everywhere, and I'd die of happiness if Hasbro would actually release quality plush of at least the mane 6... but it IS Hasbro's intellectual property, this is how corporations roll ;P I do feel badly that we probably won't be seeing any more of her work, though


...Edited for a typo >.<

[Scraleos]

Didn't someone go to the pony fair last year and sell plushies? At the Hasbro HEADQUARTERS? I admit though over $1000 is excessive for a plushie. They cost about £25 to make for me, and the stuffing and fabric is less expensive in the US. With prices that high, it'll get anyone's attention.

Also, some custom artists make $100's. Especially when they make ponies from the show, and make already exsisting ponies more show accurate. Why doesn't Hasbro go after any of them?