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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
Fans may have to [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]] if legal troubles also forbid a home release.
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[[Wikipedia|The Other Wiki]] refers to this as the [[wikipedia:Tragedy of the anticommons|tragedy of the anticommons]], where the existence of competing rights holders -- not just in copyright, but also in patent law, land ownership, leasing rights and other areas -- frustrates achieving a socially desirable outcome.
Related to [[Screwed
{{examples}}
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* The spectacular legal pileup on both sides of the Pacific Ocean between multiple rightsholders in the ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' franchise has ensured that precious little of the franchise [[No Export for You|can ever be released in the United States]]:
** Bandai was going to release the video game ''Macross VFX II'' in the US -- even released a demo disc with one of the major game magazines. Harmony Gold forced them to stop.
** ''[[
** Numerous attempts to bring out the widely praised Yamato's ''Macross'' transformable toys have met with C&D letters. Yamato even tried to release the toys with all Macross indicia removed, under the name of "Sunwards". It failed.
** The only reason, apparently, that ''[[Macross Plus]]'' and ''Macross II'' were released and still enjoy widespread release in the US is that they came out at a time in which HG was "not minding the store", according to rumors that they were weakened after a head-hunting raid by [[Saban Entertainment|Haim Saban]]. And that the Japanese side of the pileup [[Sending Stuff to Save
** It's still a minor miracle that the original series attained a US release, first through AnimEigo and then through ADV.
** The big one, though, is ''[[The Movie|Macross: Do You Remember Love]]''. This is considered one of the holy grails of old-school anime fandom. However, numerous companies -- the usual names in the conflict, such as Big West, Studio Nue, [[Tatsunoko Production]] and Harmony Gold, as well as other companies -- Shogakukan, Japan Victor Musical Industries, and even ''[[Godzilla]]'' studio Toho are all squabbling, making a veritable legal [[Gambit Pileup]], one so intractable that some names in the anime industry think we'll see a cure for cancer and world peace before DYRL is legally released again outside Japan.
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== Comicbooks ==
* In the late 1990s, Black Mermaid Productions of Australia were responsible for ''[[Elf Quest]]: Wavedancers'', which featured a group of aquatic elves. "Creative differences" between Black Mermaid and EQ publisher Warp Graphics led to the cancellation of the series, and an agreement that neither company would reprint it. Warp came out with its own ''Wavedancers'' series featuring new characters, while Black Mermaid is reportedly working on something called ''Elf Fin''.
* ''[[Zenith]]'' cannot be reprinted because [[Grant Morrison]] claims that when Rebellion bought the rights to ''[[
* 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-Based Title|in America]]) - Rebellion, IPC, [[Neil Gaiman]], [[Alan Moore]] and [[Todd Mc Farlane]] ''all'' claim to own the series, which dooms any chance of it ever being revived. Marvel has apparently cleared the rights for the earliest stories featuring the character, but not for its run in Warrior magazine or Eclipse Comics. Said run, featuring the work of Moore and Gaiman, is naturally of the most interest to comic readers and is left as a particularly sad example of [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]].
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== Fan Works ==
* Sometimes this happens to [[Fan Sequel|Fan Sequels]] and [[Fan Remake|Fan Remakes]] based on licensed properties, the most famous case probably being ''[[Crimson Echoes
** ''Chrono Trigger Resurrection'' met the same fate.
* ''Zelda'' fan-movie ''The Hero of Time' was prevented distribution by [[Nintendo]] via cease-and-desist letter.
** However, Nintendo was nice enough to let the creators keep the movie up for about half a month in the holiday spirit at the end of 2009, which is a hell of a lot better than most companies do.
* The ''[[Warhammer
** ''[[Turn Signals
* A Youtube user by the name of [http://www.youtube.com/user/DisneyNAW DisneyNAW] spent nearly an entire year working on a fan-film called "The Grand Adventure" which was pretty much a [[Mega Crossover]] of everything Disney starring Mickey, Donald and Goofy as they try to take down Chernabog. Halfway through the editing, he got a letter from Disney telling him not to post it online. Not for copyright law or anything, though that could be considered a major factor, but because of how certain characters are portrayed. First was Mickey, who was portrayed as mischievous. While they thought he perfectly captured his character, they wanted to bring Mickey's mischievous character their own way. And the second was Chernabog being portrayed as an [[Expy]] of [[The Devil]], which collides with another reason why they C&D'd it: It felt a little too dark and edgy to them. Despite these reasons, they enjoyed watching the movie and gave DisneyNAW compliments on making the film.
== Film ==
* The indie [[Slasher Movie]] ''[[All the Boys Love Mandy Lane]]'' probably won't see the light of day in the United States for the foreseeable future, due to the company that held the American distribution rights to it going bankrupt and closing its doors. Also a case of [[Screwed
* Many people believe ''[[The Day the Clown Cried]]'' was never released due to poor taste but it was actually due to copyright issues over the script. In fact, Jerry Lewis was technically not supposed to finish it but he did, resulting in the movie being completed but rarely seen.
* ''Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story'' was a [[Dead Baby Comedy|sardonic]] biopic by [[Todd Haynes]] about [[The Carpenters|Karen Carpenter's]] rise and bulimia-related death, with the additional gimmick that the Carpenters were represented by [[Barbie]] dolls. Due to the angry lawsuits from Karen Carpenter's estate and Mattel, the movie will probably never be screened legally again.
* The [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] is a big victim of this, being a [[The Verse|shared universe]] for a handful of cinematic characters adapted from a [[Marvel Universe|shared universe]] for literally ''hundreds'' of comic book characters. [[Thor]], [[Iron Man]], [[The Incredible Hulk]], [[Captain America]], [[Hawkeye]], [[Black Widow]] and [[Nick Fury]] can freely interact with each other in the movies just like they do in the comics, but [[Spider
== 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 (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 (
* 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.
* This trope didn't kill ''The Film Crew'' outright (via Jim Mallon threatening to pull the ''[[
** 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 [[
** ''[[
* 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/TVM the TV Movie/Recap|TV movie]] <s> has been barred from North American VHS or DVD release for similar reasons</s> was thought to be [[No Export for You|permanently unavailable outside the British Commonwealth]] due to this; the warring rightsholders decided to bury the hatchet and a worldwide DVD release came in February 2011.
* 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...
** 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.
** ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]'' actually kept the original music for the DVD, paying all the necessary fees. This is why said DVD costs several times as much as DVDs for other shows.
* The DVD releases of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' have been repeatedly delayed due to issues with music rights. One entire scene had to be cut from a first season espisode because the studio was unable to secure the rights to a song used in that scene. Completely averted by Jim Henson's other major production, ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'', as it used entirely original music.
* The DVD release of WB's all-female superhero series ''Birds of Prey'' was held up for ''years'' (leading to an awful lot of [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]] needless to say) due to music rights issues; the fact that it was [[Screwed
== Music ==
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** [[YouTube]] has come under fire for the fact that they remove videos just because of an infringement claim without investigating whether the video is Fair Use or not. [[YouTube]], and "Content Service Providers" in general, are required by law to pull without investigation as soon as they receive proper notice, or else they themselves can be [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Sued By The Lawyers]]. Uploaders can object to cases of "mistake or misidentification", in other words claiming that the copyright owner made a mistake when it failed to see that "it's legal Fair Use, damn it!"
** One machinima short was completely muted by WMG specifically because of ''one short song clip'' used in the beginning of the video.
** Curiously, there is a pattern that tends to emerge with what gets pulled and what doesn't, even aside from some content owners being more stringent about it that others: TV shows and movies (''especially'' current ones) are the strictest, along with popular music (unless the artists ''deliberately'' use online distribution [[No Such Thing
** But since anyone can make a copyright claim, they don't need any proof that you are the copyright holder, and since they don't investigate any claims, anyone who just doesn't like someone's video or even a bot can file a false claim. To dispute the claim, you must provide unnecessary personal information (your full name, phone number, physical address, email address) meaning most people who are the victim of a false copyright claim would just not bother disputing. Even though [[YouTube]] tells people not to file false claims and that repeated false claims could get the person is legal trouble, that doesn't stop people from filing false claims.
* The above was what caused [[That Guy With
** The Critic responded to the legal threats by posting a video that was basically an entire episode's worth of [[Take That|Take Thats]] against the individuals responsible.
** Luckily, Doug Walker successfully defended the videos as Fair Use.
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* [[One Manga]].com has removed its archived scanlations because of attitude shifts from some publishers.
** In fact, quite a number of online scanlation sites have been shut down or censored due to publisher pressure.
* Like many radio show hosts, Phil Hendrie allows website subscribers to download show episodes as podcasts. At some point, network lawyers decided that it was a copyright violation for podcasts to include music. This affected any skits that involved music, including his frequent parodies of Jim Rome's and [[Coast to Coast AM|Art Bell]]'s shows that incorporated their respective "[[Guns N' Roses
* Some flashes on [[Newgrounds]] are victims of this due to being based on copyrighted works, as Newgrounds has received [http://www.newgrounds.com/lit/legal.html cease-and-detest letters] from companies such as [[The BBC]] (for a ''[[Teletubbies]]'' spoof called "Teletubby Fun Land", which has been eventually renamed to "Tele''bubby'' Fun Land"), [[Jim Henson|The Jim Henson Company]], and [[MGM]] (for a ''[[
== Newspaper Comics ==
* ''[[Garfield]]'' had a short run of ''Believe it, or don't'' gags... until PAWS Inc. got a cease-and-desist letter from the [[
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Way back when, FASA had obtained a license to use a number of mecha from three anime shows -- ''[[Crusher Joe]]'', ''[[Fang of the Sun Dougram]]'' and -- yep, you guessed it -- ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' for use in their ''BattleDroids'' wargame. Never heard of ''Battledroids''? That's because [[George Lucas]] threatened a lawsuit over the word "Droid". So, the game became ''[[
** A year or so ago, Catalyst Game Labs (the game's current publisher) gained the rights to use the artwork for much of the Unseen... except for Macross based designs, which Harmony Gold still retains control over.
** Another attempt to bypass problems with the Unseen was the ''Technical Readout: Project Pheonix'', which published updated, original artwork for the designs, using the art style for current-era Battlemechs. The different look is explained in-universe as a simple retooling of production lines to match current Inner Sphere tech standards, letting the new Reseen mechs exist alongside the original Unseen designs in the background and still allowing Reseen designs to be used in the art.
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== Videogames ==
* ''[[Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman]]'' was forcibly renamed to ''[[What Did I Do to Deserve This My Lord]]?'' after an angry letter from [[Batman|Warner Bros.]]
* The [[
** ''Blockles'' was pulled after a lawsuit from The [[
* ''[[In the Groove]]'' stopped development after a lawsuit from ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'' publisher Konami was settled out of court. Similar lawsuits on ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' (at this point owned by Activation) and ''[[Rock Band]]'' were less successful.
* This trope is commonly theorised to be the reason that [[MOTHER 1
* The fangame ''[[Streets of Rage]] Remake'' was yanked off of its' website days after completion due to Sega wanting to protect their IP, despite the fact that Sega themselves haven't made any more games in the series for over 10 years. Some theorized that it was because of the recent mobile phone port of Streets of Rage 2.
** This came not only after the project had been in development for eight years, but also after Sega had (supposedly) given their blessing for the project as long as it was not sold for profit. Regardless, [[Keep Circulating the Tapes|the finished game still proliferates on file-sharing websites]], although any hope of a patch to fix bugs and unresolved issues with the game is probably kaput.
** 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
* ''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).
* 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 ''[[
* 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''.
== Web Comics ==
* [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Tart_as_a_double_entendre.png This] infamous ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' strip showing ''[[Strawberry Shortcake]]'' [[In the Style Of]] ''[[
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== Western Animation ==
* Disney's purchase of [[Marvel Comics]] put an end to Sony's production of ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]''. (In general, Disney's trying to avoid screwing with existing licensing deals, but Sony gave up the TV rights to Spidey so they could keep [[Spider-Man (
** [[Greg Weisman]] explained the show's situation [http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=14223 here]; he even points out that the companies themselves weren't to blame, but that it was just bad corporate luck.
* This caused the demise of King Louie of ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'' in all Disney media. The family of the late Louie Prima (who voiced Louie in the original movie) sued Disney because [[Jim Cummings]] did ''too good a job'' impersonating Prima when he voiced the character in ''[[
* ''[[
** [[Mike Judge]] wouldn't let a third of the series be released since he was [[Old Shame|embarrassed by it]].
* Some lawsuits by the members of the class depicted in ''Mrs. Munger's Class'' (whose likenesses were used without permission) ended the segment's run on [[One Saturday Morning]] and shut the door on plans for an ABC primetime version of the cartoon.
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