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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"...I have a territorial instinct that exhibits a kind of knee-jerk negative reaction to seeing other people controlling the destiny of my characters. (That's the main reason why ''Goliath Chronicles'' was so painful for me to watch.)"''|'''[[Greg Weisman]]''', creator of ''[[
So the author of this work is considered to be the ultimate authority of this work, maybe he is the creator, director, or producer of this fictional work. He had the initial idea of this fictional work (or at least this version of it) and most ideas are his, not to mention that he is the final authority regarding [[Canon]]. He must "own" this fictional work -- right?
Except not... The main difficulty of creating a fictional work is not always a creative issue. Very often the creator of a fictional work is unable to produce his work the way he wants without money. Other times he wants to use characters he doesn't own. The only way the author is able to produce his work, or using the characters he likes but doesn't own, is by giving all the legal rights of his hard work to some big company [[Deal
While this removes all the production costs, it can backfire for the author for the following reasons:
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#If "the work" becomes successful thanks to his input, even if the company gains a fortune thanks to it, the author won't be able to become rich himself or earn more money beyond his salary.
#The author won't be able to use his work independently without executive approval - and even if the author gets permission, the author will most likely be obliged to pay royalties for using his own work/creations.
# The author's [[Word of God]] can be demoted to [[Fan Fiction]], while the executives can [[Armed
#[[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|If the company doesn't want the original author, they simply replace/fire him from the project.]]
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This can be very painful for the author losing all their "control" of their work despite being the main creative force behind it and the ultimate authority of it. However some fans may still consider them as "[[Word of God]]" in spite of this, and even hold them in higher regard.
Sometimes, a creator may try to [[Torch the Franchise
{{examples}}
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** [[Paul Cornell]] also ran his use of the Endless version of [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] during "The Black Ring" arc by Gaiman and got approved. Generally, the only one of the Endless that is used without Gaiman's permission is Destiny, the only member of the family not created by Gaiman. Destiny predated ''[[The Sandman]]'' by many years (and was host of one of DC's horror anthology comics) and was retconned into the Endless by Gaiman. His personality has stayed pretty consistent, so it's not seen as any problem.
* Likewise, no one would use ''[[Starman (Comic Book)|Starman]]'' characters without at least giving James Robinson a heads-up.
* Pat Mills created a whole bunch of strips for ''[[
* The creators of ''[[Superman]]'' sold the rights to him early on (for $65, for each of them!), but later fought tooth and nail just to get some recognition.
* This was standard practice in comic strips until the 1980s and Bill Watterson's famous fight to prevent ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' merchandise. Today, creators generally own all rights to their strips, or have a contract that reverts all rights back to them after a certain number of years.
* The creators of ''[[
* [[Rob Liefeld]] was annoyed that [[Peter David]] revealed that Shatterstar (a character he created) was gay, and posted that he couldn't wait to revert it (back to "asexual, and struggling to understand human behavior", not straight). [[Joe Quesada]] responded that Liefeld would have to get permission from the next editor-in-chief, and [[Peter David]] has since confirmed Shatterstar's bisexuality.
** And a new Editor in Chief has come, and still no sign of Marvel changing it.
* Another semi-exception exists in the case of ''[[Judge Dredd]]''. It was originally conceived by John Wagner (writer) and Carlos Ezquerra (artist), but copyright and publication rights lie with Rebellion (at present). Plenty of other writers regularly write new material, but an unofficial understanding exists that only John Wagner is allowed to alter the status quo.
* [[Marvel Comics]] owns all of its characters and their have been many legal battles fought by the likes of [[Jack Kirby]], Steve Gerber (creator of [[Howard the Duck (
* [[Steve Ditko]] reportedly left the ''[[Spider
* One of the reasons for founding [[Image Comics]] was that artists and writers working for Marvel and DC wanted to own their own properties, avoiding this very trope.
* Some time when you're bored, Google "''Before [[Watchmen (
* This is why it took so long for ''[[Groo the Wanderer]]'' to be published -- Sergio Aragones did not want Groo to be owned by anyone else but him, but in the late '70s, the default assumption was that comics had to be "work for hire". It was only with ''Destroyer Duck'' and the advent of "creator-owned labels" that sprung up in the wake of Steve gerber's protests over Marvel's ownership of ''[[Howard the Duck]]'' that Aragones found an imprint that he could feel comfortable publishing Groo with. (Ironically, ''Groo'''s longest-running imprint was actually a subdivision of Marvel, their creator-owned "Epic" imprint.)
* The [[New Gods|Fourth World]] series by [[Jack Kirby]] were his distinctive [[DC Comics]] creation, but he was never able to tell his stories the way he intended and its concepts and characters like [[Darkseid]] were integrated into the [[The DCU]] completely instead.
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== Films ==
* There is a ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (
* Happened to [[Gene Roddenberry]] with the ''[[
== Literature ==
* L J Smith was fired from writing ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'' by the company that owns the rights, allegedly because she disagreed with them about who the heroine should be romantically paired with at the end. The company intends to get someone else in to write it the way they want.
* Tying into the below-mentioned Tabletop Games, R.A. Salvatore doesn't own the rights to the stuff he's written based off ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''. He tried to end ''[[Forgotten Realms|The Legend of Drizzt]]'', but backed down after being told that a different writer would continue the story. It's suspected by some that the series's recent decline in quality is an attempt to [[Torch the Franchise
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' hasn't been owned by its original creators in well over twenty years, ever since Gary Gygax had control of TSR wrested from him in the mid-1980's. Strangely enough, despite being the [[Trope Codifier]] for the entire RPG concept, Gygax has had very little effect on advancing the game's canon since it was first created. He created the original [[Greyhawk]] setting, but was involved very little with it afterwards before eventually leaving the company because of massive [[Executive Meddling]]. Very few gamers would actively prefer Gygax's game mechanics to what is produced today, though there is a certain flavor in classic adventures like ''Temple of Elemental Evil'' and the ''Tomb of Horrors'' made during his tenure that make for fun throwbacks.
** Likewise, Ed Greenwood had originally created the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting through a series of articles published in TSR's ''Dragon'' magazine in the late 80's. TSR eventually bought the rights to the setting outright, publishing it in a comprehensive campaign boxed set. Since then, it had been a playground for authors like R.A. Salvatore to publish mostly original novels based in the setting's backdrop, almost turning it into an [[Expanded Universe]]. As for the setting itself, Greenwood continued to have some gradually decreasing input, or at least the right to complain, all the way until the release of 4th Edition, where the Spellplague and other interdimensional weirdness caused [[The End of the World
** [[Dragonlance]] is currently owned by [[Wizards of the Coast]], and not by Tracy Hickman, [[Margaret Weis]], or Jeff Grubb, all three of whom (Among many) who contributed greatly to the setting.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Greg Weisman, despite being the principal creator of ''[[
* It happened to Weisman again with ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]''. When Marvel and Disney merged, the former gave ''Spectacular'' producer Sony the choice of keeping the TV rights or the [[Spider-Man (
* Regardless of whether you believe [[John Kricfalusi]] was fired from it for [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|constantly conflicting with]] [[Nickelodeon]] BS&P or [[Schedule Slip|repeated failure to meet deadlines]], ''[[
* Of all people it happened to [[Walt Disney]] himself. He lost the rights to [[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]] and got replaced. After this incident he started to own all of his creations (including [[Mickey Mouse]], who was basically Oswald's replacement). [[Disney]] got the rights to Oswald back from [[Universal]] in 2006. This might explain why the Disney corporation [[Freudian Excuse|so jealously guard their own intellectual property.]]
* [[Don Bluth]] never really owned the rights to any movie he made (save for perhaps ''[[Banjo the Woodpile Cat]]''), resulting in both the [[Sequelitis]] of his more profitable films, and the [[Executive Meddling]] of his films in the 90's (which were made [[Lighter and Softer]] and played [[Follow the Leader]] with Disney). Bluth still gets [[Mis Blamed]] for it.
* [[
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