Looks like Hasbro is shooting its foot off.
Hasbro BANS The Selling Of All Un-Official Art from Convention.
But if you would prefer reading the article here, here is the article copied directly from the website.
Hasbro BANS The Selling Of All Un-Official Art from Convention.
By Jay on Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Word has started circling the Internet today about new restrictions being placed on the selling of Transformers fan art at this years Botcon convention.
Artists that purchased tables at the convention are being told that fan art which may infrige on Hasbro's intellectual property or trademarks can not be sold at the convention.
We went to the Club and asked for clarification, we were told that this was a policy being implemented by Hasbro and would only effect those who have never been contracted by Hasbro and its licensees before.
We were also told this should not effect many people, since most people who have tables and selling art at this convention have worked in some fashion with Hasbro or its licensees.
Botcon is the officially sanctioned Transformers convention by Hasbro.
This is obviously another attempt by Hasbro to try and protect it's intellectual properties from piracy. Last month it was announced that the selling of 3rd party non-sanctioned Transformers toys would also be forbidden at this years convention.
It's understandable for a company to try and protect it's own intellectual properties, however the restrictions on fan art being sold will likely seem a bit extreme to many fans.
We are dedicated to being to be the best resource for all your Transformers news and reviews every day. Keep your browser dialed to Tformers.com for updates as they happen.
~~~~~~
Sadly, it may go to any artist who draws Transformers and does commission drawings of fan art characters. In other words, artists will not be allowed to draw ANY TRANSFORMERS for ANYONE.
~~~~~~
A few days after they announced the fan art ban, they retracked that statement and allowed fan art to be sold and drawn by the artists there. They must have changed their minds when the artists that bought table spaces there started to demand refunds from the show as a sign of disgust to Hasbro to make them retract their ban. Much to the delight of the fans and the artists who remained.