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Clumsy Copyright Censorship: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
The removal of material from a work because copyright lawyers complained, done in a totally non-seamless fashion. Rather than replacing the disallowed material with something respectable, what turns up instead is obvious blank space or [[Lampshade Hanging]] on why it was removed.
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Sometimes occurs because [[Disney Owns This Trope]]. See also [[Writing Around Trademarks]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* The Japanese audio track on the U.S. release of ''[[Kodomo no Omocha]]'' simply cuts out at one point in the first episode because the record label for the band Tokio wouldn't allow their music to be used.
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** It may not have been used at all on the American version.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' was [[Product Placement|sponsored by Pizza Hut]] in Japan. All the logos had to be cut out for the American release.
** The same applies to ''[[Darker
* The English dub of ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' replaces The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" with a generic instrumental in The Baby's introduction, removing the subtle joke that the neo-Nazi is a fan of a multi-racial group.
** Again the source of this is the Japanese company over music distribution, so VIZ had to compensate for the missing tracks.
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== Comic Books ==
* [[Archie Comics]] has ended up altering two covers to their ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series - issue 8, which had [[Marvel Comics]] heroes fighting in a cloud of dust, and ''Sonic Super Special #7'', which not only had the [[Image Comics]] heroes on it, but two of Ken Penders' creations on it - during various reproductions, such as cover scans on ''Sonic Mega Collection''
== Card Games ==▼
* Game designer James Ernest developed a game in which players are [[Diabolical Mastermind|Diabolical Masterminds]] competing to construct the most stylish act of [[Bond Villain Stupidity]]. It was originally released under the title ''Before I Kill You, Mister Bond.'' Following a cease and desist order from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer over the use of [[wikipedia:James Bond (ornithologist)|Bond's name]], the current edition is titled ''James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game''.▼
** The [http://paizo.com/store/games/cardBoardGames/other/r/v5748btpy741t official product description] even includes the line, "We’d tell you what it was once called, but we’d rather not get another letter."▼
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* ''The Big Fix'' includes a lovely scene with Richard Dreyfuss preparing for a date, with Leon Redbone's "I Wanna Be Seduced" as the BGM. Sadly, for the VHS release the song had to be replaced with generic instrumental music. Fans assiduously record the movie every time it shows up on TCM, while holding out hope for a DVD release.
* ''[[Freddy Got Fingered]]'' was originally going to have a brief ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' parody scene, but they couldn't get the rights to "The End" by [[The Doors]], and since it needed that song to work, the scene was cut. The sequence was put on the DVD as a [[Deleted Scene]]: Since they ''still'' couldn't get the rights, the audio track is Tom Green explaining the situation and recommending that the viewer turn the volume down and cue up "The End" themselves.
* ''[[Phantom of the Paradise]]'' is a rather unfortunate case. Antagonist Swan's record label, [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Swan Song]], was featured in many scenes, including long shots and panning shots. At about the same time they were filming, [[Led Zeppelin]] manager Peter Grant started a ''real'' [[wikipedia:Swan Song Records|record label]] with the name, and beat Phantom by a couple months with their first album release. Grant threatened to block release of the film, so [[Brian De Palma|dePalma]] and his editor ''
* The broadcast version of ''[[Little Nicky]]'', which is particularly jarring because of the prominent [[Product Placement]].
{{quote|'''Nicky:''' Popeye's chicken is fuckin' awesome!
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== [[Live
* The early releases of the ''[[Northern Exposure]]'' DVDs replaced soundtrack music when rights could not be secured for the songs used in the original broadcasts.
* ''[[The Odd Couple]]'' DVDs have quite a few scenes and jokes cut out due to the use of copyrighted music.
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** In many cases, whole scenes were removed. [[Hulu]]'s version of the infamous "Turkeys Away" episode cuts out a scene between Mr. Carlson and Johnny Fever because the scene revolved around the song "Animals" by [[Pink Floyd]].
* ''21 Jump Street'' suffers from this. While the licensed music wasn't the ''whole'' draw of the show, it was an important part of the atmosphere, and lyrics were often used to communicate plot, which makes chunks of some DVD episodes make very little sense now that they're backed by nothing but elevator music. The DVDs still sold enough to finish the show, possibly because there don't seem to be many bootlegs in circulation...
* A frequent occurrence on ''[[
** "[[Don't Try This At Home|You should never mix blur with blur; it's very dangerous.]]"
** Averted when testing Diet Coke and Mentos, both mentioned by name, and any other myths that specifically need a certain type of product for it to work.
*** Played straight with "a certain car" that allegedly drives better backwards.
** The [[
* On television, throughout the late 1980s and most of the 1990s, the opening theme to ''[[Married... with Children]]'' has always been "Love and Marriage" by [[Frank Sinatra]]. However, on DVD, they changed the song to [[Suspiciously Similar Song|something similar, but not the same]], with no lyrics.
* One episode of ''[[Operation Repo]]'' had a scene bleeped out because they did not want to pay to license the song "Happy Birthday to You"
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** A full DVD release of [[Daria]] [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|did actually come out]].. without the background music.
* Because of the BBC's status as a public network, ''[[Top Gear]]'' is able to make extensive use of copyrighted music in its original airings. These are often removed in DVD releases and overseas broadcasts (where the rights are not as easy to secure).
* ITV's ''[[Police, Camera, Action!]]'' did this to the 1996 episode "Road to Nowhere" - end music replaced by generic orchestra music, 2000 episode ''Getting Their Man'' (with Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" replaced by a cover version of Joe Loss's the Stripper). It was never explained why, and fans of the show are dissatisfied with this mutilation of the show by ITV executives. [[Executive Meddling]] at its worst, maybe... and probably [[Edited for Syndication]] without any justification.
* Many fans were worried that the 2010 reairing of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' would change the music for this reason, particularly the iconic theme song, which Disney hadn't gotten the rights to for Adam's reappearance in ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'', using generic rock for his theme when all the other reappearing Rangers got their own shows' theme songs. Thankfully, it turned out that Disney was actually contractually obligated to keep all the original music in the re-releases, so this was averted in the end.
** For the music, anyway - there are several points where company logos are blurred over (such as the names on the weights and the Nike swoosh on an extra's shoes in "A Pressing Engagement").
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* Frequent in reruns of ''[[SCTV]]'' because the producers didn't bother to clear rights for any of the music they used. Sketches with unusable songs were either cut or edited into incomprehensibility, such as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpdTftVA8L4 "Cooking with Prickley"], a large portion of which is simply fast-forwarded through Edith's singing.
* The producers of both ''[[My So-Called Life]]'' and ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' were able to procure the rights to Haddaway's "What is Love" for their future airings and DVD releases. However, whenever a fan uploads the Delia-Rickie dance or a sketch featuring the Roxbury guys (Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan as two club-hopping [[Casanova Wannabe|Leisure Suit Larries]], often with a third member played by an episode host or cameo, such as [[Jim Carrey]], [[Tom Hanks]], [[Jack Nicholson]], [[SCTV|Martin Short]], and Sylvester Stallone) onto [[YouTube]], it's usually muted, as Sony Music owns Haddaway's catalog and doesn't have a release with [[YouTube]] (and, much like the ubiquitous Warner Music Group, they are ''very'' vigilant in their policing of their music).
* The ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' episode "The Tale of the Prom Queen" originally had "In The Still of the Night" by The Five Satins played during the final scene, but it was removed in the DVD release, obviously due to copyright issues. In ''The Tale of C7''
* The first few season's of ''Newton's Apple'' used Kraftwerk's "Ruckzuck" as their theme tune, but the video releases replaced it with a [[Suspiciously Similar Song]] version.
* ''[[In Living Color]]'''s DVD releases have a lot of sketches either edited to remove song references or music video parodies (often serving as the show's cold opening) removed, along with a Men on Film sketch edited to remove a reference to Richard Gere being gay (along with a [[Prison Rape]] joke) and a commercial parody of Colt 45 that, according to FOX's [[Media Watchdogs]], [[Black Comedy Rape|made light of date rape]] (Billy Dee Williams [Keenan Ivory Wayans] forces his date to drink until she passes out, then [[Dude, She's Like, in a Coma|moves in to have sex with her unconscious body]])
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* In any [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] footage before their name change, any time the initials "WWF" are mentioned, the audio suddenly goes dead just around the letter "F"; in the same vein, any time the WWF's Attitude Era "scratch" logo is shown on screen, it is covered by [[Pixellation]] (from on-screen graphic logos down to the WWF patch on referee's shirts), and the on-screen "bug" of the logo is covered up by a black-bordered version of the current WWE logo. This is due to a settlement of a trademark infringement suit brought by the World Wildlife Fund.
** Due to a weird legal grey area in the United Kingdom, older WWE events are allowed to be released in their original uncut format as "Tagged Classics"; this means that the audio and video are both uncut and uncensored, and are presented in their original condition. Unfortunately, these releases are region-locked (and in PAL format), but that can often be worked around... one way or another...
** The old WWF logo got a literal clumsy censorship treatment during the [[Attitude Era|Old]] [[Retraux|School]] [[WWE Raw|Raw]] special, nevertheless. The title cards show the untouched WWF splash screen, not counting the crossed out "World Wrestling Federation" title, supported by the promotion's current name written below. The logo remains unchanged even during the show.
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== Radio ==
* ''[[The Now Show]]'' often features short excerpts of copyrighted music (e.g., a burst of "I Predict a Riot" in place of the French national anthem) which have to be removed from the podcast version. Usually [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the replacing segments: "You are now not hearing the song "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt. Frankly, you should count yourself lucky."
▲* Game designer James Ernest developed a game in which players are [[Diabolical Mastermind
▲** The [https://web.archive.org/web/20101209152831/http://paizo.com/store/games/cardBoardGames/other/r/v5748btpy741t official product description] even includes the line, "We’d tell you what it was once called, but we’d rather not get another letter."
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* ''[[Metal Gear]]:''
** Due to fear of a lawsuit over its blatant similarity with Sviridov's "The Winter Road", the iconic ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' theme was omitted from later games in the series.
** In the mobile phone, the ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater|Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence]]'' and Virtual Console rereleases of the first two ''Metal Gear'' games, many of the boss names were changed due to possible copyright issues: Arnold=>Bloody Brad, Coward Duck=>Dirty Duck, Black Collar=> Black Ninja, Ultrabox=>Four Horsemen, Night Sight=>Night Fright, etc.
* Later versions of ''Pengo'' replaced Gershon Kingsley's "[[Standard Snippet|Popcorn]]" with an original tune.
* The Wii Virtual Console re-release of ''[[Tecmo Bowl]]'' simply blanked out all player names, leaving only their numbers behind.
== Web
* In the DVD releases of ''[[The Angry Video Game Nerd]]'' episodes, the licensed material is removed with the purpose of not being sued by the rights of the original material. By that, for example, ''[[The Wizard (film)]]'' review had to be removed from the [[Super Mario Bros 3]] + The Wizard review. In the Rocky episode, the licensed music had to be removed and replaced with a [[Suspiciously Similar Song]] version of "Gonna Fly Now, plus the instance of the appearance of clips from the ''[[Rocky (film)|Rocky]]'' movies also had to be removed, between others.▼
* This has even happened to [[Animutation|Animutations]]. That infamous Peter Pan cosplayer that shows up in some of them has actually filed DMCA complaints about unauthorized use of his picture, and thus [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvfkvw-luGU the YouTube version] of Dwedit's "JamezBond" replaces his picture with a silhouette filled with text [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] the situation (seen above).▼
* Parodied in the [[Homestar Runner]] cartoon "A Decemberween Mackerel." Homestar and Marzipan are singing the "O Decemberween" carol from an earlier 'toon, except the line "Coach Z's been drinking Listerine" is replaced with "Coach Z's been drinking nonspecific-mouthwash-rine". Then a lawyer sticks a document into the frame and tells Homestar to sign it.▼
* The print version of ''[[Looking for Group]]'' had a page missing... because a character was singing a Queen song on it.
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', in a similar situation, took the less extreme route of just removing the copyrighted lyrics from the page in the "Fire and Rain" storyline. The printed edition of the book included some lyrics, including those that hadn't appeared in the strip (the lyric-yoinking began before the plot finished), but it was significantly reduced to just the most relevant lyrics of each song.
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* Parodied in ''[[Mezzacotta|Comment on a Postcard]]'', [http://www.mezzacotta.net/postcard/?comic=47 here].
* In the print version of ''[[Megatokyo]]'', anything in the Shirt Guy Dom comics that was taken directly from another source are covered by a censor bar, with notes on top explaining what it was.
== Web Original ==
▲* In the DVD releases of ''[[The Angry Video Game Nerd]]'' episodes, the licensed material is removed with the purpose of not being sued by the rights of the original material. By that, for example, ''[[The Wizard (film)]]'' review had to be removed from the [[Super Mario Bros 3]] + The Wizard review. In the Rocky episode, the licensed music had to be removed and replaced with a [[Suspiciously Similar Song]] version of "Gonna Fly Now, plus the instance of the appearance of clips from the ''[[Rocky (film)|Rocky]]'' movies also had to be removed, between others.
▲* This has even happened to [[Animutation
▲* Parodied in the [[Homestar Runner]] cartoon "A Decemberween Mackerel." Homestar and Marzipan are singing the "O Decemberween" carol from an earlier 'toon, except the line "Coach Z's been drinking Listerine" is replaced with "Coach Z's been drinking nonspecific-mouthwash-rine". Then a lawyer sticks a document into the frame and tells Homestar to sign it.
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** Same deal with ''Captain N''.
** A particularly egregious example involves an episode of ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' with Milli Vanilli as guest stars. Their, erm, "[[wikipedia:Milli Vanilli#Media backlash|performance]]" in the episode is dubbed over... with an instrumental piece. The original version of the episode has never been seen since its original airdate, so its obviously not on DVD either.
* After MTV announced that ''[[Daria]]'' would come to DVD in 2010, fans expected that most, if not all, of the licensed music would be replaced, since previous releases of the movies had all the music altered (though not as clumsily as was done for other examples on this page.) MTV supposedly respects the show and repeatedly assured the fans that they were going to great lengths to avoid clumsiness. However, after the official release, fans reported that some replacements have proven clumsy anyway, particularly the eight listed [https://web.archive.org/web/20120511060942/http://www.outpost-daria.com/daria_the_complete_series_dvd.html here].
** Among those instances, the one that would seem the clumsiest to new and casual fans probably involves a scene from the episode where Daria, Jane, and Trent drive to a concert together. As the characters get stuck in traffic, they perform some [[Homage Shot
* ''[[Duckman]]'' received a few music edits on the DVD sets, including removing a sequence when "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In" played in the episode "Not So Easy Riders". Luckily, none of the [[Frank Zappa]] tunes were affected by this practice.
* The accordion music for the original version of the ''[[Pingu]]'' episode "Pingu Has Music Lessons From His Grandfather" was deleted from the re-soundtracked Sprout airings and DVD prints because the producers were unable to get a copyright clearance for it. The original version with the censored music were only found on the UK VHS release for ''Building Igloos'' and the [[Cartoon Network]] airing.
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[[Category:Censorship Tropes]]
[[Category:The Courtroom Index]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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