Exactly, if he happened to make parodies or such, then we would have talked about fair use.
But what he did falls right down trademark violations, plus he probably knew that but was hoping to pass unnoticed, which is hard after you gain a certain amount of fame
@neo4812
LOL no, making money by using someone else’s character without their consent is violating their trademark.
Stop talking about fair use and copyright if you don’t even know what was wrong in what he was doing…
@zidders
Absolutely. Profiting of fancontent is already really freaking shady for transformative works, but when you draw the attention of the trademark holders and they can’t say they’re unaware of you, not dealing with it would basically just throw that trademark out the window - fair use and copyright is one thing, trademark is another. And this was never anywhere near fair use anyway. If anyone remembers the slippers with a pony mascot, it’s not really any different from that.
@Background Pony #4907
Actually sunset did an appearance yes it was in the equestria girls movies [Through the mirror and Spring Break] were she went back to ponyville so your statement is basically wrong
I don’t it really matters. You have characters like Sunset who have never made an apperance in the show in any capacity and Flash who only had a few speaking lines and that’s it. I wouldn’t think too hard on it
@neo4812
No. No he wasn’t. His work was not parody nor was it commentary. He used someone else’s trademarked character to create his own fan works and he took Patreon money to do it. He was directly profiting off someone else’s work. While Hasbro shouldn’t have given him the run around he knew what he was doing was wrong. When you create fan content like that you are entirely dependant upon the characters owner to decide whether or not they’re OK with you creating (and profiting from) such content. If they don’t like it tough shit you gotta deal with it. They’re legally required to protect their trademarks. Jan’s lucky all he was required to do was cease making fan content.