[Daniel Beaver]

I actually saw this first on BoingBoing:

Quote

Australian Nerf fans were outraged to learn how Martyn Yang, a Nerf-gun blogger writing for Urban Taggers, was tricked by Hasbro into revealing his home address with an offer of a giveaway for his readers, only to receive a lawsuit threat and takedown demand from Nerf's lawyers at that address. At issue is a review the blogger ran of the N-STRIKE ELITE “RAMPAGE” BLASTER, a product that wasn't officially released yet (though as he points out, there are lots of places you can get them). Nerf's lawyers demanded that Yang turn over the identity, IP address and other personal information on his source, or face legal sanctions. Things got worse when Yang complied with the takedown demand, but still came home to find "representatives" of Hasbro's law firm, Baker and McKenzie, skulking around his apartment building and freaking out the neighbors, asking nosy questions and demanding to know where he got his information. Meanwhile, there are calls for Hasbro boycotts on Facebook, and Yang says he's reconsidering whether he'll devote his energies to promoting Hasbro's products in the future.

The original Urban Taggers post.

[Daniel Beaver]

My own thoughts on the subject can be found here.

[Just Some Bob]

I think this could be an even more relevant Wiki article
Streisand Effect
Or you could consider it my suggestion.

This post has been edited by Just Some Bob: 24 April 2012 - 09:54 AM

[Daniel Beaver]

This isn't the worse thing ever - they're just trying to control their marketing (albeit in a hamfisted, self-destructive manner). It's not nearly as bad as the havoc they inflict upon the My Little Pony community (shutting down fan sites being the most egregious example). And while Hasbro's actions may have been "legally appropriate" in all these cases, it nevertheless speaks of a lack of understanding of how to foster healthy relationship with their customers and promoters.

IAMAL, but Urban Taggers seems to have been cooperating with them (the whole damn site was down for about a month while he sorted things out). At this point, Hasbro is just throwing their weight around without to the benefit of no-one, least of all themselves.


Bob: the Streisand Effect is the effect, the Law of the Instrument is the cause.

This post has been edited by Daniel Beaver: 24 April 2012 - 10:14 AM

[Buffdaddy]

The fact that this is a thread explaining the general situation, as opposed to "OMGWTFBBQ look at dis, Hasbruh sux" is pretty encouraging.

I know there's a fine line between fostering a community/promotion and having your IP ripped off, as far as companies are concerned. Where exactly do you peg that? Anyone know of a good example?

[Ice Nine]

Daniel Beaver, on 24 April 2012 - 10:08 AM, said:

It's not nearly as bad as the havoc they inflict upon the My Little Pony community (shutting down fan sites being the most egregious example).

To be fair, though, most of us aren't writing masturbatory fan fiction about Nerf guns and drawing pictures of Raiders being "rear-loaded."

But I do, so.

This post has been edited by Ice Nine: 24 April 2012 - 11:48 AM

[Mr BadWrench]

Ice Nine, on 24 April 2012 - 11:43 AM, said:

To be fair, though, most of us aren't writing masturbatory fan fiction about Nerf guns and drawing pictures of Raiders being "rear-loaded."

But I do, so.

And Ice Nine is the man to talk to if you have questions about rear loading.



This amuses me endlessly, Can you possibly get more publicity for less effort than having some ginormous corporation try to sue you for something you have virtually no control over?

[Daniel Beaver]

This story is trending on a lot of news sites. And no wonder, it's a great click-generator. I wonder if this will have the ironic effect of getting more people interested in nerfing.

[Duxburian]

The ironic thing is that it's probably Hasbro's own employees doing the leaking, in some Chinese production facility. I mean, if the stuff is all being listed on the Chinese equivalent of Ebay, surely they can put 2 and 2 together? It's being made there and it's being sold there. How far from the tree can the apple really fall?

[OneWingedAngel]

DX, on 24 April 2012 - 09:19 PM, said:

The ironic thing is that it's probably Hasbro's own employees doing the leaking, in some Chinese production facility. I mean, if the stuff is all being listed on the Chinese equivalent of Ebay, surely they can put 2 and 2 together? It's being made there and it's being sold there. How far from the tree can the apple really fall?

Using that metaphor, I think Hasbro was trying to figure which branch of the Nerf Tree is dropping fruit early. The only thing is, they majorly fucked up their "investigation". Rather than enticing Pocket with free merch then throwing the book at him, if they had been more cooperative either 1) They'd have the info they wanted, or (more likely) 2) They wouldn't have a slowly unraveling PR nightmare on their hands.

A bit off topic, but is chomping at the bit for pre-release info the way we do good? It takes all of the suspense out of the release. I mean, we had the Rayven figured out completely months before it was released, same for the whole Vortex line and just about every release Hasbro's had for the last two years. Just my $0.02.

[Griever 2112]

I see OWA point. Hasbro works at designing these blasters and The Elite Line is still in the announcement phase and we are trying to figure out how it's hitting the magic number, but we also have pretty much buried the Hailfire which is their flagship blaster. Truth be told. Yeah it really sucks this happened to Pocket and Hasbro screwed the pooch in trying to find the real culprit, but Hasbro does have a right to find out who is leaking their stuff... they just did a piss poor job in this case.

[Remag]

If nothing else it has given me a site to poke around on. Google translate plus google money converter = cheap Nerf products (and some knockoffs). I can use Google, but I did go to college.

Anyway, back on subject, the biggest problem that I have with this is that is seems to be a result of a fake offer for free swag. That is just dirty tactics in my book, but UT did handle it well.

[Forsaken_angel24]

Wow, just when I thought they could not sink any lower.
I won't be purchasing a Nerf brand gun again.

[Crusher9051]

Amazing how hasbero does buisness they cant even secure thier own products from the general public now this is gonna bad for thier sales and public thoughts about the new line of blasters or other products they manufature.

USER WAS WARNED FOR THIS POST.

This post has been edited by Langley: 25 April 2012 - 10:39 AM

[Swatsonia]

Taken from Hasbro's facebook page, their 'official statement'.

"We appreciate the opportunity to provide the following statement concerning Hasbro’s investigation into “leaked” IP information regarding its NERF brand products. As with anything, there are two sides to every story. While we cannot comment on the details of any ongoing investigation, Hasbro takes all circumstances of its stolen and leaked IP very seriously and will continue to investigate sources of unauthorized information and products as it relates to its brands. We would like to clarify one of the inaccuracies that has been reported. While a local Hasbro Australia marketing team did reach out to the Urban Taggers website to engage in promotional activity for which it required its address, it was completely unrelated to the confidential global investigation being conducted on Hasbro’s behalf by independent investigators looking into sources of leaked IP information. Hasbro greatly values and appreciates its fan communities and is very proud of its strong relationships with many bloggers and sites that cover our brands and products."

My conclusions were that it was a sad coincidence that the independent investigation coincided with a seemingly genuine promotional offer.