It could very well have been protected under fair use, considering the non-profit nature of it. The general consensus was that it would just be ridiculously expensive to fight and nowhere near guaranteed. Jay Wright, a Mane6 Wellington, New Zealand-based animator and special effects artist, says, "We asked lawyers for advice. They had no money and no experience of legal tussles with gigantic corporations. The biggest anti-hype we could possibly get."įans offered whatever advice they thought might help, some suggesting various IP-law loopholes, like "fair use" and "satire." Some, less helpfully, suggested that the team - collectively called Mane6 - move to Antarctica, which fans believed might dodge any legal issues.īut the members of the team saw themselves as just a bunch of fans with a passion. So when we announced we had been hit by the C and D hammer and we'd be stopping development, it was the antithesis of that. Not really because of a direct ego stroke but because the work we did was being enjoyed by people. Whenever we put out some content that the fans enjoyed, it really drove us to work harder. They took to forums to express their indignation, many arguing that Hasbro's actions were an attack on fandom, on freedom of expression.Ĭopado recalls, "The team in general enjoyed the hype. It really was not until after we announced it to the general public that the rock finally dropped on me."įans of the game were appalled outraged. Moments of anger too, but it was mainly just a numbness. He says, "After the C and D we had a couple moments of panic as we dealt with the situation. He says the team always feared Hasbro's wrath, but hoped that the company would tolerate its game, just as it tolerated so much fan art. He was also the one who first saw Hasbro's cease and desist. "I wanted to just fight them to the death." The letter pointed towards various dire consequences of non-compliance. It said that My Little Pony belonged to Hasbro that the fighting game project was a breach of copyright that all work on the game must stop, immediately. A few weeks before MLP: Fighting is Magic was due to be completed, the team received an email from a lawyer representing Hasbro. News sites like GameSpot ran stories about the game. A YouTube demo hit half a million views in just a few days, rising eventually to a million. During its development phase the project attracted large numbers of followers.
The game, called MLP: Fighting is Magic, was designed as an interactive love letter to the My Little Pony characters, a free piece of fan art celebrating the team's shared admiration for the TV show. Faust had taken a bad TV show designed to sell toys to little girls and turned it into My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a clever kids' show that anyone could enjoy.
They also attracted the approval of Lauren Faust, the TV and movie writer and animator who had remade the moribund My Little Pony franchise. They learned to appreciate what each of them could bring to the project. Despite being as far apart as Maryland, Mexico and New Zealand, they became friends.
The series is based on Hasbro's My Little Pony line of toys and animated works and is often referred by collectors as the fourth generation ("G4") of the franchise.In the end they worked together for two years thousands of hours. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is an animated fantasy television series originally developed by Lauren Faust.