2012-11-05, 10:59 PM
It depends.
"Legally" they can call a cease and desist to anything using their IP. Disney tends to be lax on fan art, so that's probably fine. The NSFW art? That might be a bit different, but it doesn't stop people now from making Disney Princess Porn.
As long as someone isn't directly profiting from it, Disney has no reason to protect it. If they don't protect their copyright, then legally, they lose it.
In the case of Fighting is Magic, well, Mane6 does not profit from it, so they're fine on that front, but if Disney decides it's making a bad name for their company and their characters, then that might be a point of conflict. Any non-profit thing is fine, as long as Disney stays happy.
Disney in general is pretty lax. I imagine they'd start crunching down on things like musicians using remixes as part of their albums. Things like Tomb and Balloon Party are probably fine, since they don't profit off of it, and if they do, they aren't using show samples, just drawing from the show for inspiration, which is fine under fair use. I'm not sure about Silva Hound. He releases several things that could be contested, and he charges for his albums... it's a toss up.
Cons are probably the trickiest part. If you think about things like dealers halls, that's a bunch of people profiting off of someone's IP, even if it is their own art. Most cons don't really turn a profit, BroNYcon in particular lost money (though there are some unfortunate influences involved in that), but still, they're allowing people to sell art of copyrighted characters.
It depends on how Disney wants to interpret "fair use" and if they want to go to the trouble. Disney hasn't ever owned something with such a bizarre viral fandom before. The closest comparison would be Nintendo, but they are extremely lax on fan works.
Like I said, it depends. I'd rather it just not happen, since Hasbro handles themselves pretty well.
"Legally" they can call a cease and desist to anything using their IP. Disney tends to be lax on fan art, so that's probably fine. The NSFW art? That might be a bit different, but it doesn't stop people now from making Disney Princess Porn.
As long as someone isn't directly profiting from it, Disney has no reason to protect it. If they don't protect their copyright, then legally, they lose it.
In the case of Fighting is Magic, well, Mane6 does not profit from it, so they're fine on that front, but if Disney decides it's making a bad name for their company and their characters, then that might be a point of conflict. Any non-profit thing is fine, as long as Disney stays happy.
Disney in general is pretty lax. I imagine they'd start crunching down on things like musicians using remixes as part of their albums. Things like Tomb and Balloon Party are probably fine, since they don't profit off of it, and if they do, they aren't using show samples, just drawing from the show for inspiration, which is fine under fair use. I'm not sure about Silva Hound. He releases several things that could be contested, and he charges for his albums... it's a toss up.
Cons are probably the trickiest part. If you think about things like dealers halls, that's a bunch of people profiting off of someone's IP, even if it is their own art. Most cons don't really turn a profit, BroNYcon in particular lost money (though there are some unfortunate influences involved in that), but still, they're allowing people to sell art of copyrighted characters.
It depends on how Disney wants to interpret "fair use" and if they want to go to the trouble. Disney hasn't ever owned something with such a bizarre viral fandom before. The closest comparison would be Nintendo, but they are extremely lax on fan works.
Like I said, it depends. I'd rather it just not happen, since Hasbro handles themselves pretty well.