For those not following the past few days of news, someone, without permission, submitted a Rainbow Dash tee shirt design done by Megasweet to the Welovefine's pony competition. They liked it so much, Hot Topic started actually manufacturing them for both their online shop and their actual brick and mortar stores.
An email was sent letting them know that the design was stolen, and this is the response to that.
Good for Megasweet! I'm glad this got resolved, and with such a perfect ending. He/She deserves it for those designs.
63 comments:
Ponies.
Wow, I never thought that Hot Topic could do anything to make me respect them again. I'm impressed!
But what happens to the guy who stole it?
Just disappears into the night?
Nice, Im glad Megasweet is actually getting the recognition/compensation!
And justice was served.
I hope to see these shirts in my local hot-topic soon!
Good lookin out. This is how businesses should comport themselves, though sadly we don't see enough of it these days. Chalk it up to the magic of friendship, I suppose. Seriously happy this worked out the way it did.
Hot Topic are really good sport to do this, many companies are a lot bolder in the "Let's just steal things" department.
Congratulations on potential contract, Megasweet!
Here's your free advertisement: http://megasweet.deviantart.com/
Wow, Megasweet just got a nice deal going too out of this it looks like. Very nice. Glad to see this turning around well and being resolved.
Cool, cool. Glad it got settled.
They handled that much better than expected. Almost lost all respect for Hot Topic.
Sounds like HT wants to expand there line of shirts and not have to eat the loss in already produced shirts.
That's awesome for Megasweet, and Hot Topic has earned my respect as a business.
well justice prevailed¡¡¡¡¡
good for megasweet
hope he/she gets money out from it
Hey, hot topic made a generally cool move on this. Kudos to them.
So what shirts do Hot Topic currently have in stock?
That is an incredible turn of events for Megasweet, congratulations to him!
I approve of this business choice. =)
I can't believe that I'm saying this, but... That kind of makes me want to buy one of these from HT...
Once everything is said and done of course.
>Hot Topic / Might Fine are god tier bro's.
>Hot Topic
>bro
NO. THAT STORE IS FOR FUCKING GOTHFAGS GRRRPHRHTHGHTPGFTH
>beercans.mp3
...fine, I guess they aren't all bad
The person who stole the designs need to be sent to the MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNAAAAAA!!!!!!
The question is, will MegaSweet allow them use of these designs? they are pretty freaking awesome and I'd buy those shirts.
AH! That's AMAZING!
Ohhh, the Twilight vector. I would buy that as a shirt faster than Rainbow Dash can clear the sky.
It's a cool move, but also pretty brilliant from a business sense as it is surely much cheaper to pay Megasweet off now than to deal with the possibility of a lawsuit down the road.
Well this got settled out. Lets see hiw this turns out, cause we not hafta see what megasweet says in ter reply..... :/
That was cool for them to give the actual artist where credit is due! Congrats! Hope you take on this wonderful opportunity Megasweet, if desirable. :)
And my faith in corporate America has been restored!
...well, ok, by only a little, but still.
awesome move from them, and sorta thanks to the art thief, the original desinger might actually make money of something he/she did just for fun+ earned a chance to keep desinging for a big company, its a once in a lifetime opportunity!
You'd think the person in charge of these e-mails would know the difference between "Your" and "You're" -_-
Good to see some wrongs being righted here.
Suddenly I'm okay with Hot Topic again.
Well, then! I may have to finally get within the vague proximity of Hot Topic some time...
Yay for accreditation. :D
But am I the only one that's disappointed that they aren't interested in Fluttershy or Rarity? :\
@BND
I do feel that the fluttershy is the weakest of the set....
@BND
I can understand not picking Rarity due to her being less popular(but more fabulous) then the other ponies. Just a shock that they wouldn't want Fluttershy.
Good for Hot Topic owning up, but it still doesn't make the quality of their merchandise any less shitty.
@Kadreal
This may be true, but I think that Rarity's was the best of them.
@Joey Wonton
Absolutely. Plagiarists do it for the attention, and doing anything more than what's done would be feeding 'em. The ultimate punishment is to be a mere unnamed footnote in Megasweet's success story.
I Do love Megasweets wallpapers of the mane6. I have them all apart of my semi-giant folder of rotating wallpaper which besides MLP stuff includes only video game related wallpapers.
Congrats to her, glad the person who stole the design didn't end up on top like that recent Deviantart exposure of a scam artist I'm sure we're all aware of involving the amazing artist that is Alexiuss
So, wait, I'm confused.
Megasweet gets design stolen, the thief gets away, artist gets a deal, etc...
But does Hasbro approve of this? I mean, they just let Megasweet make cash off of this? :|
@Namefag Anon i c that you also enjoy trolling ghost :D
Plagiarism is not nice, bro.
:I
@Namefag Anon
I wouldn't say that hot topic qualifies as Virgo anymore. Most of their mercury is Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga now.
Oh how I miss the old store
so if I am understanding this correctly, the design in question will be pulled from store shelves soon?
Apologies to megasweet but that means I NEED to get one while they last, because in a couple months those things are gonna be rare. not valuable, but rare nonetheless
Hot Topic wouldn't say in an email or whatnot to Megasweet what was happening to the persons who submitted those images before. Because if they do seek legal action for the losses accrued for manufacture & shipping & estimated losses for what they should have been able to sell in the meantime... their lawyers would tell them not to say anything about it to the public. Pending case and whatnot.
If they're generous, they'll settle for something cheap or whatnot and let the idiot off the hook.
I would however, want to advertise the real name of the individual so as to warn other companies to think twice before dealing with him for his artistic design submissions so this doesn't happen again.
@DJ Kat
Hasbro has been behind the whole fan-designed shirts thing from the beginning. they game welovefine and hot topic permission to distribute shirts. welovefine decided to do a user submission thing for shirt designs and put up a vote for shirts, but some of them got handpicked before the voting even ended. a sort of a staff favorite sort of thing.
welovefine apparently is a design supplier for hot topic, and hot topic liked the design so much they expedited it to their local stores.
all of this falls under the consent of hasbro.
@DJ Kat
Hot Topic is a registered affiliate with Hasbro and a cut of the profits go to Hasbro and if Megasweet accepts this deal, a cut of profits will go to him too.
Before, the ponies took on 4chan and won. Now, they've taken on the American corporate culture...and also won.
There is literally nothing we can't do.
This is amazing news, and such a perfect resolution. I'm really hoping that Applejack shirt gets made... because I /need/ it.
This is great. Props to Hot Topic and Megasweet.
Everything went as expected.
Fantastic! I really hope that goes well for Megasweet.
@_@ personally I'd feel like boning up on some legal things before agreeing, but if it's a good deal, woooooo...
To all those saying 'oh god why don't they make xx shirt' why don't you just go make one of your own?
I took an image and had a logo makers plaster it on a shirt.
Easy.
@A Weary Exile
Glad somepony noticed that. *twitch*
Nice job HotTopic. But does this mean that HotTopic will start buying designs from MegaSweet? I couldn't imagine since the whole Rule 34 debacle (don't worry i don't look at that shit :P) would be an issue. I personally don't want it to go to popular that people especially tweens who follow trends like the sheep they are to have no respect for the culture we have invented for the show.
But thats just me, I'm not a fan of change. Anything to get the word out is good. At least we'll have the satisfaction to be a hipster douche for once and say 'I was a brony before it was cool' :)
eh good things aresorted out on the legal side.
but I don't like the fact hot topic is selling MLP merch.
then again Im bais in this matter.
"Sorry about that thing that was only partially our fault, have some money and a foot in the door in professional t-shirt design"
Should the world be fair after all?
@Joey Wonton
@Christy "Dame Helen" McFarland
I'd say withhold judgement until the truth is known about the individual.
Considering the subject content (a show originally intended for preteen girls) and method of submission (an online contest), it is entirely possible they were simply a kid who didn't fully understand the ramifications of their actions.
But whatever the case, disciplinary action should be taken, whether it is simply a serious talk explaining copyrights and plagiarism, or if they are old enough to know better, a serious fine.
@Samuel7897 I doubt it'll be a problem- sounds like We Love Fine would be the ones licensing MegaSweet's work, with the explicit understanding that one of their customers is Hot Topic, not that Hot Topic is selling MegaSweet^tm shirts. It's very unlikely anyone who knows the shirts first will find hir 18+ drawings without actively looking for them, since it won't say MegaSweet or even hir Real Name anywhere.
And if someone does find it? Artists are allowed to draw more than one thing without causing head explosion; not everyone who likes Stitch will like fat-bottomed hula girl pin-ups, but Chris Sanders does both. :P
Megasweet is the artist who has been around the fandom since the beginning, delivered everything from kickass wallpapers to humanized fanart and well...r34 aswell. He has drawn a massive amount if pics.
And I don't know a thing about him. Or her? I can't remember him ever responding to threads. Not a single homepage. Not even a dA page. Simply nothing. Someone get that dude out in the spotlight he deserves some recognition :P
Btw same goes to Moe...How come these people don't have their own art page?!
I'm glad things got sorted out. If MegaSweet decides to let them use his/her designs, I am so buying the Twi shirt. I wish they were interested in the Rarity design though :P
Crap, now I'm gonna have Hot Topic's lawyers knocking on my door:
http://www.ponibooru.org/post/view/20646
Seriously though, good for MegaSweet. Her art is awesome and I'm glad she's getting the recognition she deserves.
@Adrian Brony
I do hope you're right about Hasbro's consent, and I do think what you're saying is credible. Do you have any pages to confirm this? I'm just curious is all.
Thank you for potentially alleviating my capitalist fears :)
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