Intellectual Properties and Ponies

[Kendrick]

So I see season 1 is out on DVD (SQUEEEEEEE!!!!! ) and I decide to hit the "brony" search tag on Amazon and see what all comes up.

A lot. The answer is a lot of things pop up. I've idly wondered if the brony merch at say Hot Topic or some of these online t-shirt shops are licensed before.

But I saw "Poniworld" Kindle books and other such things. I didn't see any using show characters and didn't really read the synopsis of any of them, but the cover art was obviously modeled on the style of the show. And it was ponies with elaborate multi-colored emblems on their flanks.

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any cases of this type of stuff getting hammered by Hasbro or knows enough about IP rights to know if the small terminology changes being made were enough to be clear.

[weesh]

I am sure that welovefine and thus the Hot Topic welovefine gear is all licensed. Much of the rest is difficult to determine. Anyone have a list of the official retailers?

I'm not sure what the legality of borrowing an art style is, if you change the names and such.