This was about a year and a half ago, so perhaps you're right that the law has changed since then. However my point was more that if my friend had chosen to defend his case, the legal fees would have exceeded the profit from his sale. Even if he had been successful, he would have lost effectively. A more principled person might have taken the hit, but this is his livelihood. Intellectual property laws across the world are all wrong in my opinion. Sure, we need to protect the original artists, but I think there can be artistic merit in many parodical works which are largely stifled by big business.

In any case, I don't think the artist in this case was attempting to claim his work wasn't derivative. I think the problem is that people had assumed it wasn't traced and were annoyed to find that it was. If they liked his pieces before they knew about this, there is no logical reason to dislike them now. It's still the same piece. Only a portion of them is traced, although arguably the most important portion. Yet I do feel all of this has been blown out of proportion. People need to calm down. A portion of all fan work is copied from the source material, after all.

From my perspective, the only annoying thing about this is that the artist is not very talented and has probably made a significant sum of money from playing to the lowest common denominator. The majority of MLP fans like the show's art style, so by copying it exactly he ensured the broadest possible market for his work. This was clearly calculated, but it was in no way deceitful or immoral.

Anyways, the community's reaction to this has bothered me more than the actual event itself. Toleration is one of the central tenets of this fandom and I'm not seeing a lot of it in this comments section.

I also live in the UK and I think you'd be amazed by what you can be held liable for in terms of copyright. The laws here are, if anything, tighter than those in the US. I have a friend who was about to be sued for around £3,000 for selling a drawing which was arguably a pastiche. The case was settled out of court and the case did not proceed, but only because the buyer of the work was willing to return it and my friend willing to destroy it. The thing is that the law always comes down in favour of the copyright holder. There is very little room for manoeuvre since it is for the artist to prove that he did not plagiarise the style or content of his work rather than for the copyright holder to prove that he did. Aside from that, given the small sums of money involved, it is often not worth it for an artist to defend the case.

In this specific case, however, the copyright holder isn't pursuing any action. So as far as I am aware, the issue here is one of integrity and morality rather than of legality. Do I think tracing is dishonest? For the most part, yes. Do I think it is plagiarism? No, not really. In the end, it comes down to what you consider 'original'. For example, most of us would say that Mentally Advanced Series by DawnSomewhere is transformative enough to qualify as an original parody. Yet all of the animation is taken directly from the original work with only the dialogue, characterisation and cutting changed. This is effectively the same as tracing an outline and moving the character to another place or situation.

In MAS, the way the story plays out and the way the characters are developed is the creative aspect. For these drawings, the scenes and the placement of the characters within them to tell a story is the creative aspect. In both situations, the visual basis for the work is directly extrapolated from the source material. As with all fan-art, the lines are very blurry in this case. I don't think you can call it plagiarism any more than some of the other widely acclaimed pieces of work in this fandom. The only quibble you might have is if the artist specifically said that these works were 100% his own work, but he didn't.

In any case, I prefer artwork that doesn't precisely mimic the style of the show. It is far more emotive and far more interesting.

We could call it Stalliongrad. That article on the Federalist was probably right - although I disagree with the sentiment. But let's face it: this episode was undoubtedly an allegory for socialism. Everything about it felt like a dig at the old USSR. The song was a march; the ponies in the town were pretending to be happy around outsiders for fear of being reprimanded by their superiors if they didn't; the leader was a self-appointed dictator who didn't adhere to the values she preached. It was all there.

It does slightly bother me that political messages were inserted in a show that is meant for children, but I will admit that it was incredibly well written.

I like 10 and 19.

I can see this being like the keys of Season Four. Well, kind of. The way their cutie-marks went at the end suggests that they are going to learn something relating to them at the end of some episodes. We already know the theme of Season Five is to be cutie-mark magic. There will probably be a reprise for Starlight in the finale, perhaps along with some other antagonists yet to be revealed.

Also, is it just me who thinks this might just be the CMC's season? I would fancy at least one of them to get their cutie-mark before the end of the season. Native even all three. Maybe they'll even grow up a bit. So hyped for what the next few months will bring.

All is lost I fear. 4% magic to hit in the last 12 hours. I thought that once we had restored an element, the corresponding shard would cease to be required but, as usual, Gameloft are screwing with us. I counted from day one. This is how many of each shard I have ploughed into this quest:

Laughter: 13,639
Honesty: 5,311
Generosity: 5,580
Kindness: 3,634
Loyalty: 1,224
Magic: 533
Total:29,921

Now, given that I had 999 of each shard when the quest started, I could have actually done something useful with all of those magic shards that I was lucky enough to have accumulated. But assuming the target value for each type of shard is the same, how can they expect us to hit the target for magic shards when the chance to contribute are so limited? Like less than 0.5% of the chances of getting a laughter shard? It's ludicrous.

Hypothetically.

You mad, bro?

Actually, this is the crown she wrote to Twilight's coronation. Notice that it is a crown and not a tiara. It's to go with the dress.

No, you're both wrong. Twilight is best princess.