Comment on A Marshmallow Holiday by johnjoseco
Yeah, the way everyone is shipping them, It's only a matter of time before you see Mandopony next to Wildfire in an episode. Speaking of which, they should have a sweepstakes to have an OC put in the background.
Can't for legal reasons.
Like? I hear this all the time but I never get a specific answer. I know Sibsy is kind of a special case, but her OC was put in the show; with my extremely limited knowledge of legal matters, I'd figure there could be some way to make that work for others.
Oh god, you asked a legal question. 
This might take a while to explain...
Sibsy's made it into the show only because she's the senior storyboard artist for the series.
Actually anyone who works for Hasbro or DHX could find their OCs (if they have one) placed in the show, since according to US and Canadian copyright law, all employees must relinquish intellectual property rights to their employer as a condition of employment. That goes for any industry, really, but working on MLP makes the intellectual properties much more publicly visible.
The problem with taking, say, Mando's OC or Pen Stoke's Nyx and putting them in the show (thereby making them canon) is that local copyright law doesn't explicitly cover intellectual property rights for entities NOT directly or indirectly employed by the copyright owner. That's why no one can force Hasbro to go after all the "deviants" on here that have posted images of their OCs. They're still, technically, the intellectual property of the individual artists.
Hasbro has stated repeatedly that the only reason it moves to take down possible copyright infringements for fan-made MLP work is because under US copyright law (which, I might add, is just as ridiculously written as the rest of US Code), if they don't pursue EVERY potential infringement, then they forfeit the right to pursue ANY infringement in the future (because the US legislature is run by packs of rabid monkeys). Hasbro doesn't WANT or even TRY to pursue these things, because it's proved itself to be an incredible and free form of advertisement.
tl;dr
1. Wildfire (Sibsy's OC) made it into the series, because anything MLP that Sibsy creates is technically the intellectual property of Hasbro.
2. Mando's OC (or any other fan-made MLP idea, including shipping pairs) can NOT make it into the series, because those ideas are technically the intellectual property of the individual fan artists.
3. The few tips-of-hat in the series to the fans (Derpy, Dr Hooves, etc.) are considered "referencing" (US Code) or "homage" (Canadian Code), and are considered too widely-adopted to be the intellectual property of any one individual or corporate entity.
This might take a while to explain...Sibsy's made it into the show only because she's the senior storyboard artist for the series.
Actually anyone who works for Hasbro or DHX could find their OCs (if they have one) placed in the show, since according to US and Canadian copyright law, all employees must relinquish intellectual property rights to their employer as a condition of employment. That goes for any industry, really, but working on MLP makes the intellectual properties much more publicly visible.The problem with taking, say, Mando's OC or Pen Stoke's Nyx and putting them in the show (thereby making them canon) is that local copyright law doesn't explicitly cover intellectual property rights for entities NOT directly or indirectly employed by the copyright owner. That's why no one can force Hasbro to go after all the "deviants" on here that have posted images of their OCs. They're still, technically, the intellectual property of the individual artists.
Hasbro has stated repeatedly that the only reason it moves to take down possible copyright infringements for fan-made MLP work is because under US copyright law (which, I might add, is just as ridiculously written as the rest of US Code), if they don't pursue EVERY potential infringement, then they forfeit the right to pursue ANY infringement in the future (because the US legislature is run by packs of rabid monkeys). Hasbro doesn't WANT or even TRY to pursue these things, because it's proved itself to be an incredible and free form of advertisement.
tl;dr
1. Wildfire (Sibsy's OC) made it into the series, because anything MLP that Sibsy creates is technically the intellectual property of Hasbro.
2. Mando's OC (or any other fan-made MLP idea, including shipping pairs) can NOT make it into the series, because those ideas are technically the intellectual property of the individual fan artists.
3. The few tips-of-hat in the series to the fans (Derpy, Dr Hooves, etc.) are considered "referencing" (US Code) or "homage" (Canadian Code), and are considered too widely-adopted to be the intellectual property of any one individual or corporate entity.
Ok, I get all that. But I've seen tons of times where participating in sweepstakes gives consent for a company to use the person's intellectual property.Off the top of my head, I had too much free time while eating a lunchable, and I ended up reading all the fine print for the contest rules. They pretty much said they'd take your movie/song/show idea and make it real, provided you give up rights to your ip. Now I know that copyrights can be given temporarily to companies/people, so why not just do that? Once again, limited knowledge on all of this stuff, but I don't see anything wrong with giving copyright to DHX or Hasbro for an episode or two.
A character like Mando or any other OC will never appear in the show - period. Unfortunately because of somebody's greedy actions at the studio months and months back, has since wrecked it for the rest of the staff, so now you'll probably not see any of our OC's again.
Aww... ok... 
As we used to say in the Navy, that's above my pay grade. Sorry, bro. I don't know the answer to that one.
Sorry, bro. I don't know the answer to that one.There has to be at least one lawyer brony out there!