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Screwed by the Lawyers: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[Copyright]] and [[Trademark]] law have gotten in the way of or forced cancellation for many works. No matter how promising, popular or profitable a show is, it's still apt to get canceled if it would be ''illegal'' to keep broadcasting. This can be prone to [[What an Idiot!]] moments on the part of the owner of the intellectual property in question, since if it's that profitable, it makes sense to license the work rather than shut it down, unless of course the artist is [[Doing It for The Art]].
Fans may have to [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]] if legal troubles also forbid a home release.
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Related to [[Screwed By the Network]].
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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*** Unlike ''7'', ''Zero'', and ''Frontier'', though, ''DYRL'' was released on VHS in the US and the UK during the mid-1990s. The US got a heavily-cut version titled ''Clash of the Bionoids'' (released by Celebrity Home Entertainment), and also a version with fewer cuts or no cuts titled ''Superdimensional Fortress Macross'' (released by Best Film and Video), both of which had an English dub commissioned by Toho, which was similar to [[Hong Kong Dub|the dubs for Toho's Godzilla movies]]. In the UK, Kiseki Films released a version with the dub and a subtitled version<ref>this is the version which has the infamous mistranslated line "My engine blocks are angry at me"</ref>, both uncut.
* The 1997-2002 legal battles between the co-creators of ''[[Candy Candy]]'' over ownership of the series led to the prohibition of a massive number of merchandise on the series. Said merchandise include home video releases, preventing ''anyone'' from legally releasing the anime ''anywhere'', not even [[Toei Animation]] in their home country; a halting that persists to this day.
* In 1982, TMS and [[Di C]] decided to collaborate to create a spin-off series of ''[[Lupin III]]'' [[Recycled in Space|that took place in the future]], titled ''Lupin VIII''. One episode was already completely animated and given sound and music, but before they could add a vocal track, the Maurice LeBlanc estate (who owned the rights to the ''[[
** As a side effect, the cancellation of ''Lupin VIII'' was the direct result of the creation of ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'', when [[Di C]] was told to come up with a replacement.
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* ''[[Zenith]]'' cannot be reprinted because [[Grant Morrison]] claims that when Rebellion bought the rights to ''[[Two Thousand AD]]'' from IPC, it apparently didn't include the rights to ''Zenith''. The fans are disappointed.
* Morrison's ''[[Doom Patrol]]'' was kept out of reprints until the 2000s because of a trademark dispute with the Charles Atlas bodybuilding company over the character Flex Mentallo, who began as a parody of Atlas's iconic comic strip advertisements.
* Another well-known 80s superhero comic that has been caught in a rights-ownership dispute for decades is the [[Alan Moore]]/ [[Neil Gaiman]] ''Marvelman'' (''[[Miracleman]]'' [[Market
* The 1978 one-shot comic ''[[Superman]] vs. Muhammad Ali'' was not reprinted until 2010, as the cover included the liknesses of over a hundred 1970s celebrities in the background. The lawyers had to be convinced no one would sue.
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== Other ==
* Some years ago a British food company produced a brand of chips [fries] called Stringfellows, which had to be withdrawn when nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow objected to the name.
* [[
** McDonald's Corp. also attempted this in Malaysia, except that the dining establishment in question was a small Indian-Muslim restaurant whose only offense is that its name vaguely resembled McDonald's. The fast food chain lost that case, too.
** One of the cases they did win was to convince a San Francisco coffeeshop to change its name from McCoffee, whose name was a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|pun]] on the name of the owner Elizabeth McCaughey, a good ''decade'' before they got into the coffee business themselves. These and many other examples can be found at [[The Other Wiki]].
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** And yet, with the sheer volume of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic]]'' hacks and fangames freely available all over the place, that franchise has averted the deadly gaze of Sega's lawyers and this trope... so far.
*** That gaze averting being up to and including a fan's reverse-engineered remake of ''[[Sonic CD]]'' ''being picked up officially by Sega and sold through digital download services.'' Isn't it sad, Bomber Games?
* [http://www.terrordrome-thegame.com/ Terrordrome] was a promising [[Fighting Game]] pitting several horror movie killers, plus Ash from ''[[Evil Dead]]'', against each other. However, just in the space of a few weeks the authors received C&D letters asking the removal of Ash, [[A Nightmare On Elm Street|Freddy]] and [[Friday the
* ''Tales of Eternia'' was renamed ''Tales of Destiny II'' in North America to avoid copyright conflicts with the creators of He-Man, and is likely one of the reasons North American gamers didn't receive the ''real'' ''Tales of Destiny 2''.
* 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).
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