Ponies and Social Justice

[Senator Myth]

I'm going to bed immediately after writing this post. But this is important, for several reasons, so please read on. I'll keep it short as possible.

A while ago, actually back in spring I believe, I had a curious idea: the brony community and the Project for Awesome would go together like bread and butter. I have no idea how familiar anyone else is with the Project for Awesome, but it's a very simple premise started by an internet subculture called the Nerdfighters, a community that sprung up around the videos of John Green (the author of one of my favorite books) and his brother Hank. It has a lot of overlap with the Harry Potter and Doctor Who fandoms. It's pretty big.

The Project for Awesome is indeed very simple: the goal is to make it so that, just for one day, the most popular videos on YouTube are dedicated to charities. Instead of PMVs or awful Rebecca Black songs or whatever. Pretty simple premise.

They do it by flooding the fuck out of YouTube with content, and then spamming the comments of the videos and liking them and such to simulate virality.

If there's one thing Bronies are good at, it's posting stuff. MODS ARE ASLEEP - POST PONIES. MAKKON IS ASLEEP - POST SPAM. Seriously, one of the reasons that our community has spread like it has is because of how much Bronies love posting pony. So browsing through Project for Awesome videos on whatever day it's going to be this year and spamming "FLUTTERSHY IS BEST PONY" would be perfectly acceptable, even encouraged.

I wouldn't even consider this as an idea if I thought it would be boring or unfun.

More than just our sheer hunger to post things anywhere and everywhere, the Brony Community is also extremely creative. I don't even need to go into detail here. We all know how prolific our music community is (it crushes all the others LIKE TINY ANTS).

I thought, maybe I could mobilize the Brony community into a force for good by getting all of Bronydom involved in this project. Have celebrity bronies (OMG JACKLE APP IS FAMOUS etc) make videos, or have us musicians make a charity song or album. Money for charities is serious business, but I think that our YouTube community, if nudged, could probably make very creative and entertaining videos promoting the charity of their choice. Hell, if I managed to spread the word enough, maybe I could even get the creators of the show involved.

I mostly set this idea aside: there was no way I would have the time to do it, even if it seemed like a really cool idea. But as it happens, I'm in a class wherein the entire semester is devoted to a community involvement project. I don't know shit about the issues facing my college, since I've only been here for about a week and a half, and I don't really care about my hometown. Then I remembered this idea, and how very vast it was, yet also how I would be willing to invest more time and energy into it than into any other project I could think of. I'd like to point out that I wouldn't be doing it just to get a good grade, but the fact that I am being graded on it would definitely be a motivator not to just drop the ball on it.

My belief is that our community would not spurn this opportunity to organize in such a way that we would be doing some serious good and having some serious fun. But I turn it over to you, my dearest Brony musicians. I'm not asking you for help, I'm asking for feedback. What do /you/ think of this idea? Is it stupid? Silly? Excellent? g?

(sidenote: the title is misleading, the charity doesn't have to be about social justice at all. It could be about bringing water to rural Haiti or whatever else you want. I just thought it had a nice ring to it).

Goodnight!

[Senator Myth]

Quick addenum that's important but I forgot in main post: the P4A takes place in Decembersometime. Although we can start preparing for it quite a ways before.

[Interrobang Pie]

So we popularise one particular video, then monetise it, then we give the money to charity? That's fine and all, but can we do that? Youtube has a record for being a complete arse with it's copyright things, as we've seen ourselves.

The charity album I'm completely down to earth Equestria with though. If you get some big names on there (Jackle, Glaze, Alex S, Eurobeat if he's not going to be completely elitist), I'm sure we could raise some decent amounts of money.

What about the Bronies for Good thing, what do they do?

[X-Trav]

This is a spectacular idea! I feel we have a thriving enough community, along with the publicity, to actually get this off the ground quite a ways. Your ideas are pretty much spot on as well, the majority demographic adores nothing more than to watch/listen to Tarby celebrities. That is the key here after all, for something like this to work, publicity is a necessity! If we can flood the Youtube videos, what is to stop us from flooding news outlets? the idea for Hasbro to become involved may be unlikely, but it's still possible! After all isn't it unlikely that we would all enjoy a television series about ponies? Or that they would embrace the fandom itself My input for that would be that each user requests the collaboration of Hasbro for such a thing by uniformly leading them to reply to a single address, perhaps run by a group or a volunteer. As a company why wouldn't you jump on this kind of chance for publicity? This could be great to build a good name for Hasbro if their involvement were to come about.

We can do this.

Alert the Artists to make banners!
Implore the Writers to author decrees!
Tell the PMV'ers to create video-graphic promotions!
Force the Musicians to compose audio advocacies!

[X-Trav]

So we popularise one particular video, then monetise it, then we give the money to charity? That's fine and all, but can we do that? Youtube has a record for being a complete arse with it's copyright things, as we've seen ourselves.

LEGAL SHIT HUH? I GOT THIS!

Hasbro is a U.S. based company, currently headquartered in Rhode Island. Studio B is a Canadian based company,which holds Co-production of MLP:FiM. One of the largest suppliers of the product, Top Draw Animation is headquartered in the Phillippines.

Ultimately My Little Pony is Registered under U.S. Patent #D269986 (Zacherle, Bonnie D., Charles Muenchinger, and Steven D. D'Aguanno. Toy Animal. Assigned By Hasbro Industries, INC., Pawtucket, RI., assignee. Patent U.S. #D269986. 31 Aug. 1983. Print.)

So, if i'm not mistaken, only Hasbro can take legal action. (Please correct me if wrong.)

US COPYRIGHT LAW TIME.

Title 17 of the United States Code States:

"§ 110. Limitations on exclusive rights: Exemption of certain performances and displays

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, the following are not infringements of copyright:

...(4) performance of a nondramatic literary or musical work otherwise than in a transmission to the public, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and without payment of any fee or other compensation for the performance to any of its performers, promoters, or organizers, if —

(A) there is no direct or indirect admission charge; or

(B) the proceeds, after deducting the reasonable costs of producing the performance, are used exclusively for educational, religious, or charitable purposes and not for private financial gain, except where the copyright owner has served notice of objection to the performance under the following conditions:

(i) the notice shall be in writing and signed by the copyright owner or such owner's duly authorized agent; and

(ii) the notice shall be served on the person responsible for the performance at least seven days before the date of the performance, and shall state the reasons for the objection; and

(iii) the notice shall comply, in form, content, and manner of service, with requirements that the Register of Copyrights shall prescribe by regulation;


§ 111. Limitations on exclusive rights: Secondary transmissions

(a) Certain Secondary Transmissions Exempted. — The secondary transmission of a performance or display of a work embodied in a primary transmission is not an infringement of copyright if —

(1) the secondary transmission is not made by a cable system, and consists entirely of the relaying, by the management of a hotel, apartment house, or similar establishment, of signals transmitted by a broadcast station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, within the local service area of such station, to the private lodgings of guests or residents of such establishment, and no direct charge is made to see or hear the secondary transmission; or

(2) the secondary transmission is made solely for the purpose and under the conditions specified by clause (2) of section 110; or

(3) the secondary transmission is made by any carrier who has no direct or indirect control over the content or selection of the primary transmission or over the particular recipients of the secondary transmission, and whose activities with respect to the secondary transmission consist solely of providing wires, cables, or other communications channels for the use of others: Provided, That the provisions of this clause extend only to the activities of said carrier with respect to secondary transmissions and do not exempt from liability the activities of others with respect to their own primary or secondary transmissions;

(4) the secondary transmission is made by a satellite carrier pursuant to a statutory license under section 119; or

(5) the secondary transmission is not made by a cable system but is made by a governmental body, or other nonprofit organization, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage, and without charge to the recipients of the secondary transmission other than assessments necessary to defray the actual and reasonable costs of maintaining and operating the secondary transmission service."

We can both transmit the television series, and use proceeds collected for the cost of running the project, and later for charity SOLELY.

TL,DR: I'D SAY YES. AS LONG AS WE DO NOT CHARGE FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE COST OF TRANSMISSION AND GIVE THE REMAINING PROCEEDS ONLY TO CHARITY

[Senator Myth]

So we popularise one particular video, then monetise it, then we give the money to charity?

Nonono. The YouTube side of the Project for Awesome isn't directly about raising money, it's about advertising for charities. And it's not one particular video; it should be dozens or hundreds. Every single brony in the community could make one, and that would be incredibly great. It wouldn't be "Ohey let's get the entire community to make one video" because that would be extremely bizarre.

So if a brony wanted to participate, he would:

1) Select the charity/nonprofit of his choice
2) Make a video about it and include the Project for Awesome thumbnail and stuff

And that's about it. Then, on the day of the Project, he'd make it unlisted or whatever, and throngs of participants would watch his video, like it, comment on it, etc, before moving on to the next video. You and me and Namefag Anon can all make our own videos; it wouldn't be a single focused project. It'd be chaotic and fun and decentralized.

But the people who run the Project for Awesome always have raffles and whatnot to go along with them. And if we were to make an awesome charity album, we could make a P4A video advertising it.

So there shouldn't be any real legal issues. We wouldn't be monetizing anything. X-trav did not need to post the entirety of the United States copyright law code.

If we can flood the Youtube videos, what is to stop us from flooding news outlets? the idea for Hasbro to become involved may be unlikely, but it's still possible!

I wasn't talking about Hasbro as an entity; I was referring to the creators of the show. I mean, Lauren Faust already held a raffle to raise money for Japan, so at least some of them must be philantropy-minded. So if we generated enough attention, maybe she would be convinced to drudge up some more development sketches, or even make a YouTube video in support of her favorite charity. That's what I mean, not trying to convince Studio B to make a video. It would be beyond amazing, though, if Jayson Theissen or Daniel Ingram or Lauren Faust could be convinced to make a video.

Hopefully that clears things up! But I'm still curious to know what other people think. This would definitely be a community effort, so please speak up!

[X-Trav]

So there shouldn't be any real legal issues. We wouldn't be monetizing anything. X-trav did not need to post the entirety of the United States copyright law code.

That's no where near the entirety! Brevity is no law in U.S. Legal Doctrine!

But regardless, if we are just promoting a charity, then that is a whole different story. However if say one video were to become popular enough to be noticed by bigwigs, and so much as an image of a pony is in it, it still does fall under this law. Same goes if we were making a charity album, and it contains a sound clip from the show, unless we deem it a parody, which shouldn't be too hard to believe considering our demographic and the subject material.

[Senator Myth]

Same goes if we were making a charity album, and it contains a sound clip from the show, unless we deem it a parody, which shouldn't be too hard to believe considering our demographic and the subject material.

No, we really should include entirely original material only for the charity album. No covers, no sound clips. We'd be advertising for it pretty hard, and probably distributing it through Bandcamp, which rather expressly forbids the use of other people's content in your music (even if they don't always enforce it). It would be a huge bummer to have a charity album removed due to copyright issues.

I'm quite confident that, when it comes time to do that, we can make a perfectly wonderful album without sampling anything that doesn't belong to us.

[Andy Feelin]

I don't understand.
Do you suggest to make an album? How will an album help promoting charity?

[PinkieGuy]

TL,DR: I'D SAY YES. AS LONG AS WE DO NOT CHARGE FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE COST OF TRANSMISSION AND GIVE THE REMAINING PROCEEDS ONLY TO CHARITY

Hold up. If we charge only for transmission, what proceed remain?


I think we can still suffer legal whiplash if their content is used for any commercial endeavour, including the procurement of donations to Charities. I'll need to look into it a bit more, but there can still be legal repercussions if we're not the one receiving a beneficial interest in the funds themselves.

That being said, my understanding is tainted by an Australian law perspective here.

[Senator Myth]

I think we can still suffer legal whiplash if their content is used for any commercial endeavour, including the procurement of donations to Charities. I'll need to look into it a bit more, but there can still be legal repercussions if we're not the one receiving a beneficial interest in the funds themselves.

Pay no attention to X-Trav, pay attention only to me, who is familiar with the way the Project works.

We would not be monetizing these videos, ladies and gentlemen. They would only be endorsements or advertisements for whatever charity you choose.

And Hasbro doesn't bat an eye at YouTube poops that turn their show into videos full of toilet humor. So I highly doubt they'd get all up in arms if we used ponies to attempt to actually do some good.

EDIT: Of course, any Project for Awesome video wouldn't need to have ponies at all, if you choose not to! The extreme freedom in how you go about this project is one of the main appeals.

[PinkieGuy]

No, I recognize that we won't be monetizing these videos. However, we are using their intellectual property to "endorse or advertise" another product, for the purpose of persuading individuals to spend money on said products. Admittedly, those products are charities, and there may be exemptions for that purpose, but assuming there isn't, then there is a possibility that there could be legal backlash. I'm just trying to think the way that Hasbro's lawyers might.

[Senator Myth]

No, I recognize that we won't be monetizing these videos. However, we are using their intellectual property to "endorse or advertise" another product, for the purpose of persuading individuals to spend money on said products. Admittedly, those products are charities, and there may be exemptions for that purpose, but assuming there isn't, then there is a possibility that there could be legal backlash. I'm just trying to think the way that Hasbro's lawyers might.

Again, I'd like to reiterate that we've used Hasbro's stuff to make utterly silly, utterly stupid, and sometimes vulgar videos and stuff on YouTube. Heck, some artists (including Jackle App) have made a fair bit of money by quite illegally using their content.

So yeah, it's a possibility. But given Hasbro's behavior toward the things I described above, it's a remote one. I'm not entirely certain what you're suggesting, are you suggesting that it isn't worth doing because Hasbro might take legal action?

[PinkieGuy]

So yeah, it's a possibility. But given Hasbro's behavior toward the things I described above, it's a remote one. I'm not entirely certain what you're suggesting, are you suggesting that it isn't worth doing because Hasbro might take legal action?

Oh God no. I'm all for the idea, and will do everything I can to help out. I just wanted to clarify the fact that, as out-of-field as it may be, there is a reasonable possibility that legal action could be taken.

It's a law student thing, I swear. We see a problem question and can't help but test it out.

[X-Trav]

(so sorry to keep throwing legal shit around Myth, really. I'm probably being so annoying )

No, I recognize that we won't be monetizing these videos. However, we are using their intellectual property to "endorse or advertise" another product, for the purpose of persuading individuals to spend money on said products. Admittedly, those products are charities, and there may be exemptions for that purpose, but assuming there isn't, then there is a possibility that there could be legal backlash. I'm just trying to think the way that Hasbro's lawyers might.

In Title 17 of US code § 110 sec. 4, it says its legal if:

"(B) the proceeds, after deducting the reasonable costs of producing the performance, are used exclusively for educational, religious, or charitable purposes and not for private financial gain..."

this is NOT however legal in Australia since they use "Fair Dealing" as opposed to "Fair Use".

utterly silly, utterly stupid, and sometimes vulgar videos and stuff on YouTube.

These are key words here, it IS legal to do this actually, because it is a parody of the product. There have been cases over this kind of thing before, I believe.

[PinkieGuy]

In Title 17 of US code § 110 sec. 4, it says its legal if:

"(B) the proceeds, after deducting the reasonable costs of producing the performance, are used exclusively for educational, religious, or charitable purposes and not for private financial gain..."

this is NOT however legal in Australia since they use "Fair Dealing" as opposed to "Fair Use".

No, we have similar exemptions for those 3 areas, as well as a fourth (beneficial to community, which only applies on small key type stuff). It's just dealing with the performance component that I'm unsure of here, because we're not deriving proceeds from our use of the performance, that money is going elsewhere. If WE accrued money and then sent it to charity, I could see the legal standing, it's just if the performance is instead being used to advertise.

I could be very wrong though.



TL;DR FOR THE LAST FEW COMMENTS: LAPTOP LAWYERS DISCUSS HOW TO DODGE HASBRO BULLETS.

[X-Trav]

TL;DR FOR THE LAST FEW COMMENTS: LAPTOP LAWYERS DISCUSS HOW TO DODGE HASBRO BULLETS.

Promotion of the charity i'd assume doesn't constitute as commercial i'd think, so i'd say we are safe as well.

END ALL SOLUTION: MAKE BRONYISM A RELIGION, DEEM SHOW RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE, BE SAFE FROM LAWS.

[PinkieGuy]

SCIENTOLOGY

.



Can we get back on topic now?

I'd be more than willing to get involved in a big collab track for the means of providing for the charity. I'm not quite famous enough to stand on my own.

[Interrobang Pie]

So we each, individually, advertise a charity? I don't get it. I mean, I get why you would advertise a charity, but I don't get how you would, or the whole thing in general really.

Honestly, the album idea makes a lot more sense - you know, seeing as we're musicians? If we did a huge collab album we'd be giving something to the world as well as giving something back to our fandom. Here's what we'd do:
1) Turn our old Elements of Harmony music project around a bit. Like, get with Bronies for Good, get both Bronies for Good and EqD to advertise our partnership, as such, and create a collab album instead of a collab song.
2) Get everypony to create their own advert for the Elements of Charity (I'm coining that) - and not just on Youtube, and not just on the internet. Every little helps.
3) Throw it up on Bandcamp and announce its release on EqD. Every* penny would go to Bronies for Good, which would then get passed on to whatever charity. We should aim to get it up just in time for motherfucking Christmas. We haven't really had a Brony Christmas yet, let's kick it off with a bang. An interrobang. Eheheheh.
*Bandcamp steals 15% of all profits. Ad revenue, I think.

Thing is, I'm a little worried about step 2. There are some people who would take 'advertising' wayyy too far. We don't want to worsen the name on ourselves, after all we have quite the reputation with the rest of the world, it seems. That said, I can't think of any other way that involves the rest of the community in our project - musical talent is rare. See below

I'm just tossing the idea up here. I'd be glad to see it through.


EDIT: What about that 'It's Good to Be a Brony' that was suggested somewhere? We could write it, then hand it over to the pony community for them to sing. Then we compile it altogether into a TRULY epic collab. That'd be a good song to feature too.

[Senator Myth]

So we each, individually, advertise a charity? I don't get it. I mean, I get why you would advertise a charity, but I don't get how you would, or the whole thing in general really.

You are completely and utterly missing the point. I'm not talking about just MLR, I'm talking about engaging the entire brony community in a project that could do some serious good. The album would just be something to coincide with it, since we would have everyone engaged.

Allow me to reiterate several points:

--You would not need to make a video to participate in the Project for Awesome. You could also just spam the comments of existing Project for Awesome videos, like them, etc.

--We are not making plans of any kind at this time for anything. Right now I'm just looking for your ideas whether or not this is a good idea. Not plans to rework existing projects into charity albums. This means you, Interrobang Pie.

Here, I'm going to leave you with some examples of Project for Awesome videos from last year.

This is the video from one of the creators of the project. John Green is my hero, basically. It explains the thing pretty well, too.


This one is a great example because it's mostly silliness and doesn't even get into the charity before the 2 minute mark:


This one is really, really creative.



Okay, check out those videos. And see if you can understand what the project is about, and why I think bronies could have a lot of fun with it.

(these are all live action videos, but that's not a requirement or anything. these are just popular vloggers, so yeah)

[Interrobang Pie]

>If you'd like to know less

So yeah, propaganda. Sort of. Maybe.

I still think the album idea is better grumble grumble

[Interrobang Pie]

RIGHT I TOTALLY GET THIS SHIT

Basically, people make tons of vids about Project for Awesome.

What you've got to do is thumbs up, favourite and SPAM IT with comments - about ponies, about ANYTHING. This way, it gets bumped up to the top of Youtube's ratings, and the top videos for that day are about non-profit and charity, and not some crap music by a dude that's earning way too much.

And this isn't limited to one video. You do the same for ANY PFA video you can find, thus increasing the chances of something charitable getting on top.

Where does the money come in? Some people give according to how many posts are made on a single video. Some do others.

AND NOW YOU KNOW. AND KNOWING IS shut up pie