Hasbro Banning Sketches
Greg
Posts: 1,946
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/05/hasbro-bans-non-official-transformers-sketches-at-botcon/
and
http://tformers.com/article.php?sid=17424
Hasbro is also banning the sales of third party products, but will not provide a list of what exactly is banned. http://tformers.com/transformers-dealers-will-not-be-able/17352/news.html
This is for Botcon only so far, but could we see this branch out and see other companies taking this stand as well?
and
http://tformers.com/article.php?sid=17424
Hasbro is also banning the sales of third party products, but will not provide a list of what exactly is banned. http://tformers.com/transformers-dealers-will-not-be-able/17352/news.html
This is for Botcon only so far, but could we see this branch out and see other companies taking this stand as well?
Comments
I'm still soldiering on with my plans to do a Derpy painting for Phoenix-Con this year (My Little Pony is also owned by Hasbro).
Doom-sayers, don't jump the gun. Jeez.
Rather, this is a story about a con organizer will or won't allow at the con they are organizing. And from what I remember Bryan describing on the show about approval for commissions work at the Star Wars Celebration he went to, this move of Hasbro's doesn't seem so unusual.
Now, of course, you can still feel that they should turn a blind eye, but the context is still different than, say, getting all MPAA or RIAA on someone else's convention. This is instead a matter of what policies they want on their own turf.
Hasbro has the most pull at their con. At other cons, local or regional or even SDCC, not so much. One could get away with something at a Wizard World Macon, GA that at Botcon wouldn't be allowed. That is what I was trying to say.
art for $200."
It would be funny if you where selling Diaclone, Microman,Henshin Cyborg, and Macross artwork that mostly resembled the original G1 toy desings where based on. No harm no foul?
Answer is simple... get your Hasbro related sketches at non-Hasbro related shows.
I do think, to a degree, that they are trying to squeeze the money out of the fans at the convention but the above point also applies.
Perhaps artists need disclaimers at their tables.
Honestly, I think Hasbro should be more concerned with people in foreign countries creating knock-offs of their toys than artists at cons.
However, at the end of the day I think we need to also realise that these are Hasbro's property and that everyone else is borrowing them. Don't they have the right to say what their licences can and cannot be used for. I remember a case a few years ago where a Real Estate agent was using people dressed up as Superman and Spiderman in promotional events and Marvel and DC asked him to stop. A few in the more tabloid media were claiming that this was big corporations picking on the 'little guy' but it was the 'little guy' who was using other people's properties without permission. I don't know if that story is really relevant but it just came to mind. I especially remember yelling at the TV (something I always do when I see cheap tabloid TV paraded around as 'current affairs')
No where are they saying "stop all transformer/gi-joe/toy sketches everywhere-for-all-time-unless-you-have-premission". This announcement has no affect on any convention outside of Botcon.
At the end of the day I don't see many people asking for Hasbro related sketches... in fact, I've never seen anyone do that.
We'll definitely see as time goes by how this actually shakes out as it happens more and more, but I see no other end result. Even just the same stipulation of you have to be an artist that has worked on our property to do sketches, which seems like a very likely way to handle it, would have a major impact. I've been on the other side of this stuff and I genuinely believe it is coming, there is just too much money involved with the con game to not have it happen. Things like this always creep up slowly and everyone always wants to believe it will stop short until it is too late and then people act like they can't believe it. Instead of minimizing this, if people would speak out *now* it could change the tide before it gets worse. That is what I'm saying. Companies don't want bad press, especially before a big con, so if this goes without a whimper you better believe more and more will do the same thing.
I don't think it is a matter of them losing the copyright if they don't defend it- I agree that doesn't sound likely. But as infringement suits, as I understand them, put the onus on the plaintiff to prove that the infringer did harm and cost them potential gains (a Fair Use defense, for example, could be to claim that you didn't infringe because you did not gain, for example, or harm the plaintiffs future gains)
That is, at least, my non-lawyer understanding of it.
With that in mind, it is possible that to allow infringement under your own roof could hurt the chances of later claiming that infringement harms your IP. It could be that a past example of condoning that infringement could be used as evidence that you felt that infringement did no harm. Why else would the IP owner have allowed it at their own event?
I could see where the people in the IP business might look at it that way. It is still different than busting someone at someone elses show (and I agree with you, that may be coming yet). But I think in making this a clear policy in advance of the show, Hasbro is not making an aggressive move regarding their IP, but a defensive one.