Bowspearer wrote:Dead Metal wrote:Those people wouldn't have bought Quake Wave in the first place, and Hasbro is just as guilty as most of the 3rd Party companies, save for the ones that also produce KOs.
First off, exactly - those people will have no qualms still buying MP Shockwave. Secondly, hows it is even remotely TakaraTomy's fault and Hasbro's fault that Third Party Companies are perpetually guilty of IP theft? So when someone breaks into your house and strips the place bare, is it just as much your fault that you were robbed because you have something someone desired enough to steal it?
Not stating that I believe that HasTak wouldn't make it because of this, just that that seems to be his line of thinking.
No you misunderstood what I tried to say here, but I think that's kinda my fault for being lazy and shortening the sentence and thus making it less clear.
Hasbro is just as guilty in terms of using altered designs without paying a licensing fee.
Dead Metal wrote:I'm not down for KOs either, well except for the super hilarious WTF ones.
Thing with most 3rd party stuff like FansProject, not every company mind you, their stuff isn't stealing IP. They design products that either enhance an existing one (City Commander, Bruticus upgrade, Protector) or stuff Hasbro will likely never make (Protector aka Springer was announced after Hasbro announced that they won't be making a triple changer Springer since the Botcon and Universe repaints where good enough), and all of them are original designs that homage but do not copy the actual characters. They even scrap projects to which this does not apply, like their Wreck-Gar which they cancelled since Hasbro was making their own, and the miniature Classics Megatron styled guns, since those where too close to Hasbro property.
Of course there are companies that go further, like toy World which just straight up copies existing designs and Fans Toys here with their MP figures.
A few points here though - there is a vast difference between 3rd party add-on kits which are symbiotic and 3rd Party figures (where Fansprojects tend to be the one exception to the rule) which are utterly parasitic in their relationship to Hasbro, to the point of IP theft.
That's actually what I said, FP produces homages while there are others that make exact copies of existing designs, or in the case of some of iGear's stuff, KOs. We're on the same page here.
Dead Metal wrote:And Hasbro likes copying designs for TF alt-modes, with just enough alterations to not be sued by the owners of those designs. And lets not forget how they're currently being sued by the owners of RoboTech over their TF vs GI Joe SDCC Jetfire.
As for the examples you list here, the ethics at play are completely different. You're talking in the case of original characters being redone in the Generations line, of reduxes of original characters from the 80s which had absolutely no trademark issues at the time of release. It could be argued that in those cases that Hasbro and TakaraTomy are walking a fine line between using their own IP and not infringing on another IP. Furthermore when you look at how by the book TakaraTomy have been with the Masterpiece line, they have been nothing but respectful and ethical where vehicle licensing has been concerned.
It's still the same. There is no difference between Hasbro altering the design of a tank or car just enough to not get sued and use that for an existing or new character, and a company making a toy that looks like an existing character that doesn't belong to them, with enough differences to not be sued for IP theft. Same thing, only difference is that we take preference for Hasbro.
Just because copyrights where handled differently in the 80s and they used that to base their own ip on, doesn't give Hasbro ownership of the original vehicle designs.
Yes, Takara is using actual licenses for the MP line now, well for those that require them and aren't base on original designs like Soundwave and Optimus Prime. But they still base vehicle and alt-mode designs for every other line, save for Movies, on existing designs, with enough alterations to not get sued.
And then there's Harmony Gold. Harmony Gold are nothing short of license squatting douchebags who have mismanaged that license so badly that of all those involved with the license, they are the only ones who do not view it as a terrible mistake (in fact it is because of them that Macross hasn't shown up in the states beyond Macross Plus - in fact last time they tried this, the actual IP owners smacked them down so hard they were left in no doubt of where their station was. I expect the same results here. Furthermore, the licensing deal for Jetfire was originally with Bandai, the same Bandai who would benefit greatly from Hasbro winning said lawsuit and it predated the licensing deal HG had for Macross. That's forgetting about the countless differences between a Valkyrie and the Jetfire SDCC toy- including the fact that it's a Skystriker with an inspired drone on top of it. Lastly, HG claims alot of things, but none of them have ever been proven in a court of law. Personally I look forward to them testing their claims and pushing their luck too far in the process- bankrupting themselves in the process.
Well, it's their right to hold their ip hostage, sit on it, and not bring Macross over. Just like it's Hasbro's right to do the same with characters we would love to have on our shelves.
HG saying they won't bring the original Macross over to the Us is just like Hasbro saying they won't make a toy of character X. If you've somehow watched subs of Macross, you're pretty much the same as those who buy 3rd Party stuff to enhance their collections.
