Wait, what?
There are several reasons really, and they're all pretty obvious if you stop raging for a second.
Firstly, it's breaking the law. We knew that from the start. Hell, Hasbro have been pretty damn sweet towards us just to let the episodes sit there in full on YouTube! We should be grateful for that, because otherwise the whole brony fandom would never have been able to take hold and spread as far and wide as it has. That's something that both we and Hasbro should be happy about, as it's given us hope that cartoons can still be good, and it's given Hasbro a market it couldn't imagine.
But a download site allowing 1080p full episode downloads steps over a line. That's when we start treading on Hasbro's toes, and naturally they're going to be wanting to push us back on the invisible line of implicitly agreed levels of copyright infringement. The downloads get in the way of the iTunes option, the official release, and no one should be surprised, and especially no one should be angry. Just be glad they're not being assholes about it and chasing you up for jail time.
This was my reaction to their response page.
Secondly, it's their job. This is how the people at Studio B and Hasbro get their paycheck, pay their bills and buy their food. They need this to make money. And if we appreciate them and their hard work, then we ought to support them properly. Internet memes are hilarious, but they don't pay the bills.
This is where it comes back to the iTunes release, and the small DVD releases. It's a simple equation that everything comes back down to. If you enjoy pony, contribute money in some way to the official stuff, and they'll keep making it. Get it illegally, they lose money, and make less - or perhaps even worse - lower quality pony. And no one wants either of those.
This is where it comes back to the iTunes release, and the small DVD releases. It's a simple equation that everything comes back down to. If you enjoy pony, contribute money in some way to the official stuff, and they'll keep making it. Get it illegally, they lose money, and make less - or perhaps even worse - lower quality pony. And no one wants either of those.
You don't want a return to Generation 3.5, do you?
Thirdly, you don't even need Ponyarchive. They may have provided a nice reference point, but for those of us desperate enough to want it on our harddrive, and moniless enough to want it for nothing - and I'm particularly thinking of non-US bronies here - there are other ways. A nice simple one is downloading Realplayer. That allows you to get videos right off YouTube, so as soon as XyroTR3 has it, you have it.
It's not worth all the fuss about this one website whose days we knew were numbered anyway.
It's not worth all the fuss about this one website whose days we knew were numbered anyway.
"It's going to take me 2 minutes longer to get the 1080p of MLP:FiM. My life sucks. #firstworldproblems"
Fourthly, and this may take a little explanation, but no one likes dealing with assholes. If we deal with the take down of Ponyarchive in a responsible "ok, we're a little upset, but we understand why you're doing it and respect that" kind of way, we'll get on a lot better with Hasbro than if we start raging everwhere.
If a big fuss is made about this, and anger is sent Hasbro's way, that's not going to be good for future relations with them, particularly around things like, oh, I don't know, DVD box sets, perhaps? It'll be much better if they see us respond calmly and start switching to official downloads so that they can see how much we want this stuff. Show them that we give a crap about more of it actually being made in a way that they won't be able to ignore, and will want to respond positively to.
They'll be much happier to deal with calm, reasonable, people, rather than rabid, blood-thirsty dipshits who disregard their employees rights to earn a living from their work, so we should be calm reasonable people. That's not a problem for most bronies, but clearly, it was a bit of an issue for the Ponyarchive guys.
Pictured: How NOT to react to this situation.
In short, love and tolerate Hasbro, and their decision. We owe it to them for the great show they've allowed to be created.
If a big fuss is made about this, and anger is sent Hasbro's way, that's not going to be good for future relations with them, particularly around things like, oh, I don't know, DVD box sets, perhaps? It'll be much better if they see us respond calmly and start switching to official downloads so that they can see how much we want this stuff. Show them that we give a crap about more of it actually being made in a way that they won't be able to ignore, and will want to respond positively to.
They'll be much happier to deal with calm, reasonable, people, rather than rabid, blood-thirsty dipshits who disregard their employees rights to earn a living from their work, so we should be calm reasonable people. That's not a problem for most bronies, but clearly, it was a bit of an issue for the Ponyarchive guys.
Pictured: How NOT to react to this situation.In short, love and tolerate Hasbro, and their decision. We owe it to them for the great show they've allowed to be created.
