Fighting is Magic Receives Cease & Desist from Hasbro

[† cloud1414]

I know there are some bronies on the forums and you might already know this but I wanted to share it anyways.

 

As per a note on Mane6's website, the team behind Fighting is Magic- the
in-development, non-profit fighting game based on Friendship is Magic-
has received a cease and desist letter from Hasbro's lawyers.



According to the site's blog post, various legal measures have been
considered and enacted, but for now the team must comply with the order.
As such, production has been shut down indefinitely. A staff member of
Mane6 has also resigned from the project, effective immediately.



You can find the blog post here.



For those interested, Lauren Faust has something to say on the issue.

 

Here is a petition if you feel like signing it, it already has over 7,700 over just one night: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/526/847/063/allow-the-continuation-of-the-development-of-mane6s-mlp-fighting-is-magic/

 

Source: http://www.equestria...ase-desist.html

Edited February 9, 2013 by cloud1414

[Pinkie Pie]

I don't see why Hasbro should even care, tbh. It's a fan made game, /for fans/, and if anything, it'll make people want to buy more pony stuff. What, is Hasbro really that offended that people over the age of 7 like MLP? Are they going to go after people who make fan music now? What about people who make those flash pony creators? This seems like a very slippery slope to me.

[† cloud1414]

Still they never got permission to use anything from the show. Hasbro had to protect their IP. Hopefully they can work things out. Its still a good thing I still have the leaked beta on my computer. People are starting to think since they had a charity tourney at EVO 2013 with FIM thats probably how Hasbro got wind of them making money off of the game, even though the money was going to cancer research.

Edited February 9, 2013 by cloud1414

[† Emotional Outlet]

Some of the comments on that article do bring up some good points. For the most part it seems people understand why Hasbro is pursuing action (they don't like it, by any means, but they understand), that US courts (at least) tend to operate on precedent, and the more Hasbro doesn't protect their IP, the easier it is for others to take advantage of it. This isn't Hasbro's fault that there are lawyers who take advantage of this kind of thing, and it isn't unique to this case. Consider Disney, who lays the smackdown on any perceived infringement.

 

I tend to stay out of the way of more zealous bronies and am uncertain whether the term would even apply to me since I only like to watch the show and sometimes view fan works. It's unfortunate that a project that seems to be a labour of love has been shut down, but I can see where Hasbro are coming from.

 

For the most part I think IP laws need to be re-imagined for the Internet. A lot of people are still set in their old ways and it'll probably be a long while yet before things like this are less muddy. Here's a little somewhat off-topic story.

 

There was a situation I read about earlier--an author found a fan digital poster floating around the Internet and he wanted to work out a contract with the artist so he could sell it as official merchandise. Problem was, no one knew who the artist was. So people did some sleuthing and the artist eventually pops up. Author thinks it's all cool, except--except the artist says only the art at the bottom was their work. Someone ELSE took their art without permission and made it into a poster! They had to do it over again and search about the Internet for whomever made the poster.

 

They did, and it turns out that all three of them--the author, the artist, and the poster maker--were all in different countries. Anyway, this story has a happy ending since they worked something out between the three of them and the poster is for sale. Current IP laws don't seem to deal with these kinds of situations very well.

[† cloud1414]

Its a good thing i still have the beta on my computer.