TF Galaxy facebook fanpage shuts down due to copyright allegations

Looks like the banhammer is really coming down these days from Hasbro. Wonder who's next?


Transformers Galaxy - Hong Kong Fans Group
Hello friends and family we are very saddened us to inform you that on today we will be closing our fan page down.
@Hasbro toys notified us that some of the pics we have posted might have infringed on their "intellectual properties" and that some of the pics we posted where leaked by there staff and was not intended to be released on the internet. We had no idea that the pictures and post we made where an anyway infringing or hurting the Hasbro brand. We love and respect Hasbro and the transformer products and in respect to the concerns of Hasbro and its staff we will close our page down, and end all post involving ko products or unreleased items. We will also contact hasbro if on our personal accounts we want to post anything that might have the possibility of infringing on their rights. We apologize to hasbro toys and hope that this act of an apology is accepted by hasbro and that Hasbro’s continues to be successful and fill out transformer needs and wants.
Again we are very sorry to our fans we hope that all of our fans will start their own fans page that we can join and take part in. just as long as it does not infringe on hasbro copy rights thanks to all for the great times and conversations and everything, we hope this isn’t good bye but see later under different circumstance, thanks and much love to all of you, its been great!

i just saw this, and had it copied to post here. oh boy. I wonder if there's any credence to the thought that someone in Hasbro legal decided they wanted to make their mark, and are just going after whatever low-hanging fruit they can get.

Good luck with that brand Hasbro when you have no fans left.

If they're going after facebook pages for posting pics that are readily available everywhere, but adding their own watermark, what's next for real? I mean...theoretically, they could do the same to anyone of us who post photos of their own 3rd party/i.p.-infringing toys on the net. It reeks of the same legal firms who bore the torches for both the RIAA and the MPAA when they went/go after kids for downloading music.

Not sure if anyone here really cares, or if I'll get banned on sight for posting something this seditious, but it appears Hasbro has threatened HK fan group Transformers Galaxy (one of the best sources of TF release news and photos, and one repeatedly credited on this site's own beloved frontpage) with legal action amidst implied "copyright violations," prompting TF Galaxy to shut down their Facebook page completely.

This was posted on their wall this evening:

However you feel about the great Hasbro copyright debate, it's sad to see such a prolific and dedicated group of fans give up reporting on what they love, fearful of crossing some invisible (or poorly delineated) legal lines...

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Wow, that's just sad.

Yep, a bummer for sure.

And yet for all their posturing about intellectual property, 3rd party toys are still in circulation.

Somebody at Hasbro is making busy work for themselves.

this is just so sad, im so disappointed in hasbro, it actually make me sick, thats just terrible, a fanpage of all places, when it was their own employees that leaked the pics.

wtf....