Oh well, this is bad. Even the “Habsro” typo was their’s!
DerpySquad, a speedy transcriber, has posted the letter from Hasbro, and points out that this “kick in the nuts” might also affect the many abridged series.
Minutes later, Seth also put a post up. He also has proof that these claims are legit but is legally required to keep the emails private. However, he did insert a few paragraphs worth of his opinion, which I would like to quote after the break.
We grew up on Youtube. Without it, this fandom wouldn’t be anywhere near as large as it is. While I can support it from a legal/sales standpoint, it is confusing from the marketing side. Having easy access to episodes, any time, has always been a massive boon to the community.
What was the norm ten years ago when we would look at the TV guide and plan our schedules out to catch a specific episode, doesn't really fly today. Fanfics, PMV’s, Art, and music are always released the date a new episode airs.
I don’t think Hasbro/The Hub was prepared for the brony phenomenon, and dealing with something like that while still protecting your assets is going to be rocky. Who would have thought My Little Pony would explode like it did?
Did I mention that this is bad? And not motivating? Hasbro is more and more becoming what Fox is to browncoats (the fans of Firefly). I can’t say that I’m disillusioned, just disappointed again, I guess. Let us please approach this in a civil, as Seth puts it, and kind way, though. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we actually succeeded in convincing this giant corporation to change and update its policies? And if you are outside the US, don’t worry, you’ll always get the episodes. It’s the Internet.
Derp note: The video was uploaded on December 20th, and Nash actually linked to it on IRC on the 28th (UTC). Thanks Nash. When I had a look at it the next day I was at work, so I only skipped through it, and wrongly dismissed it. Sorry.
Update 2012-01-11 17:05Z: Turns out Hasbro is killing the videos even though they know that they won’t be able to make them available to the rest of the world. Yeah, right…
Update 2012-02-03 07:28Z: I feel this post will be more complete with a small list of sources where you can get the episodes, especially if you live outside the US, or if you don’t want to support Hasbro’s business practices. (You can send cookies to the Studio B, Top Draw, and the Hub instead.) My top recommendation is the document behind http://mlpf.im/1080, closely followed by http://b23.ru/3ujk and http://mlpvideo.terrier-rg.org.ru. I hope that these will remain reliable for a long time. Furthermore, there is also a page on Reddit you may consult. I’m probably not going to update this list, so if these links should become dead at some point, just Google or use torrents.
I was wondering why everyone seemed to ignore this video. :/
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