Yeah, iTunes (the Mac OS version, anyway) isn't that bad a piece of software (Though like OS X itself, it has a bad case of featuritis. The Mac OS version is optimized enough that it runs reasonably well despite being bloated as all hell.). The other thing with the iTunes name is positively rage-inducing, even to less-brainwashed members of the Cult of Mac. Apple's DRM scheme is utter bullshit, to say the very least. And the regional availability thing is ludicrous. MLP:FiM isn't even available in Canada, where the show is made.
But yes, Ponyarchive is a shining example of how not to respond to a C&D letter. First, copyright laws probably only vary in period of protection and exact definition of "fair use", which Ponyarchive definitely wasn't. Unless their servers were in space or on a ship not registered with any port anywhere that never left international waters, Hasbro would just use the local copyright laws to much the same effect. Second, that letter either marks them as significantly detached from reality, or is deliberately taunting, meaning the opposite of what it says and probably destroying whatever reasonableness of Hasbro's copyright lawyers survived the process of becoming copyright lawyers.
But yes, Ponyarchive is a shining example of how not to respond to a C&D letter. First, copyright laws probably only vary in period of protection and exact definition of "fair use", which Ponyarchive definitely wasn't. Unless their servers were in space or on a ship not registered with any port anywhere that never left international waters, Hasbro would just use the local copyright laws to much the same effect. Second, that letter either marks them as significantly detached from reality, or is deliberately taunting, meaning the opposite of what it says and probably destroying whatever reasonableness of Hasbro's copyright lawyers survived the process of becoming copyright lawyers.