39,327
edits
Screwed by the Lawyers: Difference between revisions
m
update links
(→Videogames: Mino and Lockjaw) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 51:
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[The Charmings]]'' got complaints by the [[Walt Disney]] Company when ABC was run by Capital Cities, since it was an unauthorized parody of ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]''. It's unclear whether this or low ratings ultimately led to its cancellation, however, but Disney does now own ABC, opening up the possibility of a DVD release, though the heavy discouragement of press comparisons with the later ''[[Once Upon a Time]]'' by the network suggests that it considers it a [[Dork Age]] program.
** Disney doesn't own "[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (novel)|Snow White]]", but it owns the dwarfs' names. So, if you plan on doing Snow White for something, [[Writing Around Trademarks|make your own dwarfs...]]
* ESPN had a series called ''<s>Any Given Sunday: The Series</s> Playmakers'' about five years ago which was a depiction of the behind-the-scenes actions of players of a fictional pro football team (in a fictional league). However, the NFL, who was in the midst of a new lucrative deal with ESPN, were not pleased of a stark and unflattering look at the world of pro football, and pressured the network to scuttle the show after one season, which they obliged. Several pro players like Warren Sapp praised the show for its realistic (to a point) depiction of football players and their shortcomings in the world, and criticized both the league and the network for trying to scrub anything negative about the sport.
Line 57:
** Jim Mallon explained that the reason he didn't want Rhino producing ''The Film Crew'', was they'd be spending money on b-movies for The Film Crew, when they could be using whatever money they had for b-movies shown on [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] ([[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] only secured temporary rights to their movies while the show was on the air, and the rights have to be re-negotiated for DVDs. It's not easy, or cheap).
** ''[[Riff Trax]]'' itself is essentially immune to this trope due to a variation of style, however: they don't release the movies in any form, they merely release tracks of the cast talking ''about'' the movies; obviously the original copyright holders don't have any claim over things people choose to say about their films. (There ''are'' some movies available as pre-synced tracks, but they cost more, part of which goes to a payment to license them.)
* Licensing and rights issues have prevented the home video release of many TV series over the years. Most notable examples include ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' and the original ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'', which were withheld from North American VHS or DVD video release for close to 30 ''years'' before a breakthrough was reached that will allow their release starting in late 2010. The 1960's ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' series reportedly has such complex licensing that the general assumption is that it will simply never be legally released in a home video format until it finally enters public domain near the end of the 21st century. The 1996 ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Doctor Who/Recap/TVM the TV Movie
* When future generations turn to DVD/digital recordings of today's TV series, many of these shows will be lost in their original versions due to music and sometimes entire scenes being changed due to licensing and clearance issues. Examples include: the theme song for ''[[Married... with Children]]'' being replaced on the DVD releases; a scene involving [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] being deleted from the VHS release of the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S2
** The deletion of the clip from The Chase is particularly egregious, as that clip is the only surviving portion of The Beatles performance at Albert Hall (which was wiped from BBC archives for the same reason a lot of early Doctor Who was as well) and survived only because it was incorporated into the episode. These deletions fit the trope as well, because it was done in large part because the contracts with the actors' union in the period prohibited broadcasting any television program more than twice (and the entirely incorrect view of the BBC management that black and white programming was unsellable overseas).
** Most of MTV's shows have been severely affected by this due to an agreement with record companies for free promotional use of their songs on the channel. Because of this pop songs are used in show soundtracks, but the rights would need to be purchased for video release. Shows like [[Daria]] and [[The State]] languished for years before [[The Jimmy Hart Version]] of the songs could replace the offending tracks.
Line 129:
* Most of the ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games, save for the Original Generations series, will most likely never be seen in the States since the American rights to the various mecha used are owned by far too many different companies (including our favorite, Harmony Gold).
* This is also the case for the ''[[Jump Super Stars]]'' games, where various ''Shonen Jump'' properties are owned by different companies. Sometimes, a different company can hold the manga rights, anime rights, and the merchandising rights, as is the case with ''[[Dragon Ball]]''.
* Having various companies own American and European rights to [[Tatsunoko]] series was overcome for ''[[
* The ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' series was originally going to be named ''Hero's Quest'', but Sierra On-Line had to change the name to avoid potential copyright issues with the makers of the tabletop game ''Hero Quest''.
Line 150:
* ''[[King of the Hill]]'''s third DVD set was released a whole ''year'' after the second, and rumor has it that the delay was related to licensing issues for the music, explaining the third to sixth season box sets' lack of bonus features.
* The US release of ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' animated series is missing one episode each in the two seasons released so far; due to a prominent minor character bearing a [[Expy|strong similarity]] to a well-known celebrity, and Buena Vista not wanting to spend the money to secure the likeness rights. Buena Vista still hasn't released the third season; for reasons unknown. The UK region 2 release by Lace International has all three seasons complete and uncut.
* The rights to ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]'' were sold to Disney as part of a [[Saban Entertainment]] package deal<ref>Disney wanted to buy the rights to ''[[Digimon]]'', but couldn't buy it separately. The only way they could get their hands on it was to buy ''all'' of Saban's shows as a package. This would be the same deal that landed them ''[[Power Rangers]]'' for a while, which [[They Just Didn't Care]] about enough to properly supervise the creative team for.</ref>, thus making it unlikely to ever see DVD release, since Disney couldn't care less about ''[[Transformers]]'' to rerelease it and Saban couldn't care less about ''Transformers'' to buy the show's rights back from Disney as they did with much of their live-action input.
* Music rights were the reason behind the long wait for ''[[Daria]]'' on DVD; being a MTV produced show, they ([[Network Decay|ironically]]) used snipets of new music constantly, often using ten or more just one episode. Even just lasting seconds long, it led to a mind-boggling amount of rights to shuffle through. Eventually, they decided it was either clear all the rights, and pricing ''Daria'' out of the market altogether, or re-produce music that sounds good enough to pass for whatever mood they were going for.
| |||