gdp's Comments

Equestria Daily : Test Post - Comment if You Can See It

Thu, 3 Dec 2015 23:24:42 +0000

Yep! I sees it!

Equestria Daily : "What About Discord": Episode Followup

Mon, 9 Nov 2015 10:40:19 +0000

The problem is that's not really what happened-- Twilight is told these things, but before she can acknowledge that her friends are right and that she really can experience jealousy and that's OK (and apologize to Discord for unjustly thinking ill of him, even if he didn't have the best of intentions), we're distracted by Discord saying "see, I knew I could make you jealous! Isn't that a great a friendship lesson?"... This muddles things because suddenly Twilight (and the audience) have reason to believe that she had good reason to be jealous and therefore the way she jumped to conclusions about Discord might actually have been right... And STILL instead of having a positive end, Twilight and the girls pull some "turnabout is fair play" B.S. on him (when they really know better, as they are the experts at friendship and he is not)... and literally belittle him by ostracising him and cause him to feel terrible and panic as he doesn't understand what's happening. And then we're supposed to believe that making a meta-reference to an inside joke here with zero explanation sets everything right in literally the last 10 seconds of the show. Heck, if they'd cut out even 30 seconds of the boring filler and repetition of pop culture references (which are only funny the first time) in acts 1 and 2 they'd have given Twilight a chance to apologize both for reacting poorly to her jealousy, and for treating Discord cruelly by purposely leaving him out of the inside joke in the end. Heck, even having Twilight say, "You know what Discord? You were right that I can be jealous. And although I didn't really like the way you showed this to me, it was a lesson I needed to learn."... would have been so much more satisfying, and a ground-breaking development for both Twilight and Discord. It would also have strengthened their already tenuous friendship (which really needs to happen). So Twilight is robbed of her victory and then she and the other Mane 6 do something really cruel to Discord and then the episode ends. Frankly, that sucked.

Equestria Daily : "What About Discord": Episode Followup

Mon, 9 Nov 2015 10:14:46 +0000

I'm with you I think on pretty much all the points on this, with a couple more: * Repeated pop-culture references in a single episode. Really? They're only funny the first time. * Twilight's friends were very oddly unsympathetic to her throughout the episode (as if they'd learned nothing from Lesson Zero). It could have been a much richer episode if they'd sped up the boring bits in acts 1 and 2 and left some time for the rest of the Mane 6 to realize and deal with their error, too. Or, you know, don't write them out of character in the first place. :P * The ending was terrible and it didn't have to be! The moral and resolution were forced and confusing. People who do wrong to their friends fess up and apologize, even if they didn't mean to do wrong... but especially if they *did* mean to and are sincere about wanting to right that wrong. Instead of Twilight even admitting she was wrong in how she reacted to her own jealousy (and be the bigger pony, as it were), she and her friends pull some "turnabout is fair play" B.S. on Discord, make him feel terrible (by his own admission), make a meta-reference to an inside joke (the orange) and then everyone laughs as if it's all OK at the end. Discord wasn't feeling jealousy-- he was feeling singled out for ostracision (the poor guy even starts to panic and is literally belittled as he doesn't understand what's going on). What the ponies did to him was arguably worse than what he might have done to Twilight, if for no other reason than *they knew better*. To me the message at the end was "you screwed up and we're going to make you pay because we don't really like you" rather than what it should have been "you screwed up, but we forgive you because we like you and know you're still learning about this whole friendship thing." This was extremely cruel to someone who has trouble with friendships in the first place. Seriously, WTF show was I watching? * Beyond that, I was fairly bored with the episode, was frustrated myself that the "inside jokes" we weren't privy to really weren't funny-- we were being told "this is funny" rather than being shown. Maybe that was the point-- inside jokes aren't funny to those who aren't privy to them-- but that still means *the audience isn't going to find them funny*. If you're going to go down that road, you're going to have to work a lot harder to keep the audience entertained (and you'd probably end up with something which is very much out of place in the MLP franchise anyway). Seriously, as a writer, how can you not be aware of this?

Equestria Daily : Spotlight Music: Come to Light / Become

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 21:53:16 +0000

Both of these songs are full of all kinds of awesome, eh!

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Sun, 3 May 2015 18:19:30 +0000

Actually I think this just proves my point: Hasbro moved relatively quickly to come up with a licensing agreement with Shapeways once they figured out how to get money out of the deal (and produce something that more directly competes with the hand-made fan market that they so far have been unable to touch). Or maybe I'm misunderstanding your point by bringing up the Shapeways 3D printing deal?

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Sat, 2 May 2015 04:13:23 +0000

Fun fact: Almost all the mergers and acquisitions that happen in Internet Technology today are ENTIRELY based on intellectual property. We're talking billions of dollars each year that get spent on this. There are entire companies with multi-million dollar revenue who make it their job to snap up patents especially and sue the crap out of anyone who tries to make anything similar to the patent (usually with zero previous knowledge about the existence of such patents). Also, our bought-and-paid-for congresspeople are totally uninterested in this right now. Heck, it's hard enough defending Net Neutrality laws, eh! (We were really close to not getting that much.) So while I absolutely agree that we need reforms in our intellectual property laws, we've got a BIG fight ahead of us. It starts by convincing people not to vote corrupt a-holes into office.

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Sat, 2 May 2015 04:06:31 +0000

Hasbro could grant a limited license to Jan. They just don't care to... because they just don't care. Heck, I'm willing to bet Jan would be OK with making sure the content he produces meets their standards and practices. I suspect the motivation for not doing this is purely financial. Why bother accommodating someone that isn't going to make you money when you could just trap him behind a wall of bureaucracy and delays until he gets too discouraged and moves on. Heck, without making any kind of public statement about this, you don't even have to deal with pissed off fans (not that this fandom has a very long memory any... ooh! Shiny!) Sorry, what were we talking about again?

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Sat, 2 May 2015 03:48:44 +0000

Well, those things obviously wouldn't fall under that license. But his Button Mash content (excepting perhaps Bar Buddies), as well as the content on the ask crusaders blog is benign and charming. I never saw the animatic for Pony Rock Anthem or any of the Emerald May stuff, so can't really say-- but I'd trust your word if you said it was too risque. The way he presents himself on his tumblr, it feels like he's having his career threatened over this, which is very Not Cool, Hasbro.

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Sat, 2 May 2015 03:37:42 +0000

Hasbro granting a license to Jan to create his works doesn't give carte blanche to everyone else, and doesn't put Hasbro's IP rights in jeopardy. So this strikes me more as Hasbro being unwilling to grant such a license for whatever reason. (And they may be justified-- some of Jan's work is a little risque. However, they could grant him a license to create stuff that they need to approve of prior to him publishing it-- but again, they're probably not willing to do this.) You're probably right that having acknowledged him they can't now ignore him and claim plausible deniability... So while my opinion differs as to whether they would want to back down (I don't think they care really), they now have to do something. Or nothing-- they could just put him behind endless red tape and bureaucratic delays hoping he'll just go away and we'll all forget about this (which is what I suspect they're actually doing).

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Sat, 2 May 2015 02:15:47 +0000

Good idea! I'll ask Jan whether he thinks starting a kickstarter to pay for a license would be worthwhile.

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Sat, 2 May 2015 01:22:19 +0000

Actions speak louder than words. If the marketing and PR arm is like "bronies are awesome, we love you guys!" Yet legally they continue to do things hostile to the fandom-- why should I believe their PR people? It's their job to make he company look good, so anything they say is to be taken with a grain of salt. Again, they show their true colors in how they act. To be honest, I don't know a whole lot about My Little Investigations or Journey of the Spark and their trials and tribulations (or lack thereof) with Hasbro. This is the reason I didn't address them. But I'm not the only one ignoring talking points, now am I? Ok, I concede: I didn't know Hasbro has been actively following up with Jan. As for the squirrelnet.org folks: I suppose their openness to working with Hasbro is why they're using a website assigned to Peru? http://www.geobytes.com/iplocator/?IpAddress=192.... (Looks like in the U.S. it's being fronted by hostgator, probably under some kind of CDN agreement with their actual hosting provider? Hostgator is cheap as well-- perhaps this is simply a site they're prepared to burn if it comes down to it.) Surfing around the site a bit I also notice they've made it exceedingly easy to tell who they really are (not). Yeah, this totally looks like a group of people who aren't afraid of being located. Riiiight. You still have yet to provide any kind of motivation Jan would have for framing Hasbro. That's the crux of it for me: With zero justification you're calling a respected, creative member of our community out and accusing him of lying and framing a company that has demonstrated hostility to fan projects in the past. Again and for the last time, why? What could his possible motivation be for doing this? Please stop ignoring this question. Said another way, why should I trust the actions of the silent 800-pound gorilla that has done nasty things in the past? Have they actually done to redeem themselves? (Oh yeah: "Hasbro does nothing.") And now you're accusing me of being distrustful, hateful and ungrateful and saying this exemplifies our fandom. Remind me again: Why are you here? I was being realistic and skeptical. Based on their past actions I have reason to believe Hasbro often takes a hostile stance to fan created works and isn't afraid to intimidate people who become too popular. At the same time, I have no reason to believe Jan is being anything but honest. So let's look at you for a bit: Why are you so hell-bent on trying to redeem Hasbro? And why are you so willing to accuse Jan of lying so readily?

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Sat, 2 May 2015 00:07:12 +0000

Sorry, I still don't buy it. You're making a lot of claims without backing it up, and stretching the truth on the ones you're making. Some of the points you're making actually are completely in line with my characterization of Hasbro (eg. why try to stop fan sales at conventions? They wouldn't get any money from it since largely the things fans buy there are not things Hasbro makes anything like, and they would also create a huge PR nightmare for themselves in the process. Nevertheless, I know they put pressure on convention organizers that they are uncomfortable with vendor halls!) Also, you're misconstruing the argument I'm making: I'm not saying that Hasbro is trying to crush us, per se, so much as they are completely indifferent to us in every way except the money we're willing to spend on their stuff. Again, many of the arguments you make are actually in accordance with this motivation. The one salient point you make is "Hasbro does nothing." I interpret that to mean that they don't bother with people who aren't popular enough, or people they can't easily bring legal repercussions to. (The people who picked up Fighting is Magic? Yeah, where are they exactly? The one lesson they've learned from Mane 6 is "don't be easy to find.") You are conveniently skipping over the treatment of Lauren Faust when she was forced off the show. And I personally know several people making pony content who have gotten C&D's they are choosing to ignore because they're calling Hasbro's bluff to bring them to court, they're located in countries where the copyright laws Hasbro uses to threaten people aren't as strong, they're confident in their ability to remain anonymous, or they're confident they would win any case Hasbro would bring against them. Having seen how they tend to treat convention organizers behind the scenes as well, I can tell you they have a love-dislike relationship with us: They love our money, dislike just about everything else. And all of your response continues to ignore any possible motivation Jan would have for framing Hasbro like this. Again: Why would you think he would do this? It doesn't make any sense. The most likely explanation is that "Hasbro does nothing," because they know with him cowed like this all they have to do is ignore him and eventually he will go away and the fans' anger will subside. (In fact, it's hard to work up anger when the only response is silence-- and I'm sure Hasbro knows this.) If Hasbro is interested in improving their image, they could absolutely prove me wrong by coming out with a public statement (HA! They refuse to even acknowlege the existence of the fandom that is making their profit numbers soar while their competitors are having trouble), or by, you know, actually contacting Jan and working with him to figure out a deal. Until that time, I remain unconvinced in any supposed redeeming qualities Hasbro otherwise might have over any other greedy, multi-national corporation that sociopathically cares only about its own bottom line.

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Fri, 1 May 2015 22:57:08 +0000

Now who is getting defensive? I'm being realistic about this. A lot of people here aren't. (If you re-read my comments, you'll see that I understand exactly what kind of company Hasbro is... and I've yet to see you refute any of my claims behind their motivations. Rather you're confirming what I'm saying and then asking "is that so bad?") I find discussions of what kind of company they "should be" to be of little value when nobody is providing any practical suggestions about how we get them to be more like what they should be. Expressing anger here is a flash in the pan that Hasbro is anticipating (probably correctly) that we'll all forget about, especially if they've got some other new announcement in the works that'll make us all happy and willing to shell out more cash to them. If you want Hasbro to change how it handles popular fan content like the stuff created by Jan, then you have to hit them where they'll feel it, or give them an incentive they really want. (Stick or carrot, eh.) So really, complaining about the status quo, or (worse yet) blaming Jan here does nothing productive. It is also unproductive to make Hasbro out to be something other than what they are. If you want Hasbro to stop this nonsense, you've either got to organize a boycott, or, I dunno, start a kickstarter to help Jan buy a license to create and distribute his work. Because otherwise Hasbro does not care in the slightest.

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Fri, 1 May 2015 22:38:37 +0000

Silly Filly Studios wanted to pursue other kinds of content. And they said as much, without blaming Hasbro at all. While some are saddened that they won't be spending all their time on pony, overall this announcement was met with well wishing and understanding. A lot of content creators in the pony fandom have done this. And more will in the future. I really don't see many (if any) of them citing Hasbro as the reason for doing this. Why should Jan? Jan definitely *did* get a C&D from Hasbro. And he has been in discussion with them about the rest of his content. This is corroborated by representatives of Hasbro as well. You citing Mike Vogel about not knowing what happened ignores the follow-up Vogel made after he investigated: He explained that Hasbro outsources the protection of its IP, so it's extremely common for Hasbro corporate to not know anything about the specific dealings of their contracted legal teams. However, that does not get them out of the responsibility for the actions of their contracted legal teams (except, perhaps, in the minds of those who really want to convince themselves that Hasbro is actually a respectable company with the best interests of their fans in mind.) That Hasbro makes legal threats enough to shut stuff down and is smart enough not to end up in court over these things (where it would get REALLY expensive), says more about Hasbro's legal savvy and estimation about the depth of their opponents' pockets. I do not understand what your talking points have to do with Jan framing Hasbro the way you're describing. We have every reason to believe he's being sincere (both based on his and Hasbro's past behavior). Why do you doubt it this time? Is it just too upsetting to you to believe that Hasbro is simply yet another huge, greedy multi-national corporation that sociopathically cares only about its own bottom line, regardless of the social cost of the same? ;) Seriously, the first step in solving a problem is admitting the problem exists. If you don't want Hasbro to fill the mold of the worst companies out there, the first step is calling them out when they step into it.

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Fri, 1 May 2015 22:10:48 +0000

Sorry, I just don't buy it. What would it possibly gain Jan to make Hasbro the scapegoat here? And his pony content is among his most popular: If he's producing content for free anyway, why wouldn't he want to keep making content he knows there's already a huge audience for? Jan doesn't seem to me to be the kind of person to want to stir up trouble, and he's been up-front and frank about his motivations and limitations in the past. Why would he suddenly change now? Rather, it makes much more sense that Hasbro is simply purposely being obtuse and creating red tape to delay any progress with him. Hasbro sees the path of least resistance to ignore him and hope that he'll eventually go away, and that the fans pissed off by this will soon forget (which they most likely will). Hasbro solving the Jan animations licensing problem is not hard, it's just one they aren't going to do because they don't smell any money in it. And if it won't make money, why bother? Other creators of pony content probably need not worry until their works become too popular.

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Fri, 1 May 2015 21:46:08 +0000

The "fair use" exceptions to using others' IP is more limited than people usually think. And when there are automated tools to detect and respond to IP infringement (like youtube's content ID), and when those tools are very difficult or expensive to work around / get appeals on, even legitimate fair use claims are often being suppressed. Why do you think most of the brony reviewer content on youtube does reversed video or other filters on the clips they show when reviewing? Hasbro has and does go after others creating fan content in the community (the Mane 6 Fighting is Magic game is an example of this). I also know that Tsitra360 and other artists have occasionally had their content targeted by people credibly claiming to represent Hasbro. Friendship is Witchcraft also comes to mind. The common factor here seems simply to be popularity. Become too popular, and Hasbro is more likely to send you a C&D. Understand: While Hasbro is legally required to defend their trademarks (and the show art style IS something they claim to have a trademark on), there's a certain degree of "plausible deniability" they can claim if they simply didn't know about something because it wasn't popular enough. So it makes sense that they should feel they have to take action if something becomes popular enough that they can't ignore its existence. Having said this, Hasbro still has no excuse here: Given the size of this company (making billions of dollars each year), it would be trivial for them to have their lawyers create a "community friendly" license that they could grant to Jan animations, the Mane 6 dev team, etc. which would allow them limited license to create the content that they do so long as it fell within certain rules. However, Hasbro will never do this because they only care about making money, and they aren't yet convinced that doing the above would end up making them any money. Make no mistake, my little bronies: Hasbro doesn't care about you at all. They only care about your wallet. As for why Jan doesn't just change character names and designs... I don't know. Perhaps he feels it wouldn't be true to his original vision for the series. Perhaps Hasbro has threatened to sue if he does anything in show-accurate style. There are a million reasons this could be, and Jan may not even know all of them. (Personally, I think it's a combination of a dubious claim on a trademarked "show style" combined with the fact that Hasbro just wants him to go away-- so they're erecting delays and red-tape road blocks to getting anything done with him.)

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Fri, 1 May 2015 21:21:51 +0000

See previous comments about granting a license to Jan, which does not put Hasbro's IP claims in jeopardy. The "but they HAVE to defend their IP" argument is a red herring.

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Fri, 1 May 2015 21:07:14 +0000

"Faust choosing to quit." Suuuure she did. The funny thing about departing from such a highly visible and influential position in any company is that the departure often comes with NDAs and threats of legal action if said departing person tells the whole story, as it were. Lauren has said on multiple occasions that she can't watch the show since she left because it feels like watching her kids being raised by another family, that it just hurts too much. If you think that she left entirely of her own volition, then you're more gullible than I thought. It is sociopathic to act anti-socially in the pursuit of money. Hasbro has proven they are willing to do this time an time again (example: What do you think the worker conditions are like in China where they create their toys?). Don't get me wrong: Hasbro certainly isn't the only company to act this way. Nearly every company that grows to a certain size is because all of the incentives they create internally for their employees are ultimately about increasing shareholder value regardless of the cost (so long as they aren't called out on being too egregiously greedy). The reason I'm spelling it out this way is because some people here think that Hasbro cares about the fandom. They do so only to the extent that the fandom makes them money. If Hasbro truly cared about being a socially progressive company (you know, upholding the message of the show we all love), then they would act differently. But they don't, so they don't.

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Fri, 1 May 2015 20:53:00 +0000

No Clover is right: 1st amendment rights apply only to government censorship. Companies are required to follow anti-discrimination laws and the like, but there's absolutely nothing that says they can't censor content. In fact, copyright and trademark laws actually effectively grant the copyright and trademark holders the right to do this. Companies do this all the time, in fact (that's one of the purposes of the "Non-Disclosure Agreement" that most companies require their employees to sign when they're hired). It may not seem fair, but that's how it works, eh.

Equestria Daily : JanAnimations Stopping Pony Productions?

Fri, 1 May 2015 20:46:17 +0000

The "easy route" is to simply do nothing or delay using layers of red tape until the problem goes away and the jilted portion of the audience forgets or goes away. And this is exactly what they're doing. I agree that licensing can be complex. But isn't it amazing that companies like 4DE and IDW publishing somehow are able to get a license in only a month or two. And hell-- 4DE's products directly compete with the plush toys that Hasbro (subcontracts out to chinese manufacturers to) sell in Walmart and Target. Hasbro makes literally billions of dollars each year-- how hard would it be to pay their lawyers to create a license that encourages fan works, so long as those fans create works (or distribution channels) that fall within certain rules? Really, as a company, Hasbro has neither earned or deserves sympathy in conflicts like this. They always take the path they think will end up making them the most money. Always. And they care about *nothing* else.