Better Copyright Through Fair Use and Ponies 169
Balinares writes "With even harmless parody sites like Peanutweeter now getting shut down by twitchy lawyers in the name of brand dilution concerns, the situation with fair use has become bleak. Yet some companies are learning at last. Variery reports that when parodies of their latest production started popping up online, Hasbro not only allowed it to happen, but started contributing some of their own. Now their My Little Pony reboot has gained a huge following and reached cult status. Fair use does make everything better. That, or it's the ponies."
Re:4chan (Score:3, Informative)
...and hugboxing galore. Now, the most even-handed community, aside from r34 fics and pics (which are spoilered as a rule), is actually the MLP General's on 4chan's /co/ board: http://arch.413chan.net/mlpgeneral/ Very little evangelizing (since they had to be contained back in February), still somewhat critical opinions on content there, and it's just, well, general pony talk now.
Re:Brony here (Score:3, Informative)
That's how it starts [photobucket.com] with everyone. It's OK.
The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt it, but the point of Remix Culture [wikipedia.org] is that the listener/viewer is no longer sure as to what's corrupting what.
To that end, I've actually never seen more than a few seconds of the actual show, but who could resist Weird Al Yankovic doing 80s pop songs? Polkas on 45 [youtube.com]? 30 years later, someone drops a new meme on it, turns a parody into a parody of a parody, and suddenly it's funny all over again.
Just yesterday [slashdot.org], Pinkie Pie herself showed up in the as an example of how not to do software testing [akamai.net] on the GitHub Bumblebee thread [github.com] on software testing, I think it's OK to admit it. I think the MLP viral fad is funny. I enjoy it. There, I've said it, and I feel better.
After the Presidential Press Conference [youtube.com] announcing the long-overdue demise of OBL, watching the trailer for Serenity [youtube.com], the lead single [youtube.com] and polka track [youtube.com] off the new Weird Al album, Reggie Watts [youtube.com], Wu-Tang [youtube.com], or Rebecca Black [youtube.com] (just kidding) sung by ponies, you won't care.
All links SFW graphics, a few naughty words, and thoroughly NSFS (Not Safe For Sanity).
Re:Brony here (Score:4, Informative)
My brother is a brony, and he made me watch the show. The first episode I saw is the one in which Pinky Pie goes schizophrenic... yeah, you read it right. I didn't expect this kind of content, so it was quite a shock. The next one was Rarity making dresses, essentially a joke on professions like ours: everyone asked for changes, time was ticking, unhelpful customers, freaking out and messing up... This, once again, surprised me: shows for the little people are devoid of content or flavor, like a rice cracker; MLP had instead some major stuff going on. Not all episodes are like this, mind you, and I haven't seen them all (nor planning to). Just don't discard it just like that! It's not like Rocko's Modern Life, where sexual references are small and sparse, in MLP the interesting themes (shall we call them adult?) work along the plot.
I would argue though that the best thing MLP brought to the world is the OC that flooded 4chan for a while. Also, this [youtube.com].