attn geeks: your “Jayne hat” is now a “cunning handmade hat from the future”

Or else it’s your “hat you can walk down the street in that tells everyone you’re afraid of nothing.” Just don’t call it a “Jayne hat.” From blastr:

Fox shuts down anyone selling a Jayne hat (and Firefly fans are furious)

If you’ve ever been to a convention, then you know that the easiest way to spot a fellow Browncoat is to keep an eye out for Jayne Cobb’s very cunning hat. For the last 10 years, fans of the show have been making (and often selling) their own versions of the hat through sites like Etsy and at conventions, too. On the show, the hat was made by Jayne’s mom, and, likewise, there has always been a touch of motherly love to each and every Jayne hat made by fans. No two are quite alike. That’s the charm.

Recently, though, Ripple Junction, a company that produces licensed apparel, obtained the rights to mass-produce the Jayne Hat. It instantly became a hit seller on popular nerd sites like ThinkGeek. It seemed that getting a Jayne hat was easier than ever. But that ease came with a price.

Firefly fans are coming out of the woodwork, and they are hopping mad. Why? Turns out in the last few weeks many of them have received cease-and-desist letters or have simply been banned from Etsy for producing DIY Jayne Hats. This communal endeavor, it seems, is coming to a close, and fans of the show are asking themselves why. Isn’t the whole point of the Jayne hat that it be homemade? Doesn’t it mean anything that the hats are often auctioned off at charity events? After 10 years of nothing, isn’t it unfair for Fox to suddenly force lifelong fans to cease production of something they love?

Legally, of course, Fox is well within its rights. But there wouldn’t be a fandom to hawk to today if fans hadn’t kept the show alive. Way to thank those fans.