History Main / ClumsyCopyrightCensorship

** Supposedly avoiding this trope is widely seen in the ''Sonic'' fan community as the reason why ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'' hasn't received a modern remaster yet for iOS and Android devices like its predecessors, given the wide array of composers that worked on the games (like Music/MichaelJackson) and their individual licensing rights to specific tracks. Some observers believe that MJ-composed songs were intentionally removed from the PC compilation release ''Sonic & Knuckles Collection'' due to this trope, but as it turns out, a beta of the game released in November 2019 revealed that the replaced tracks were actually planned originally all along.

*** "What game does not have a refrigerator magnet in the Workers Quarters in Grunty Industries?" In the original version the correct answer was ''Banjo-Kazooie'', but now is ''Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts''.
*** Question "How many buttons has an official Nintendo 64 controller got?", whose answer is 10, has been changed by "How many buttons has an official Xbox 360 controller got?", whose answer is 13.
*** Goggles the Mole is playing with a Donkey Kong doll in the original, he was kept in the Xbox Live version, but he doesn't have his necktie anymore, and the question about the doll with which Goggles plays also have changed. Instead of Donkey Kong, the answer is "an adorable gorilla".
*** In Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, the instructions to how to play the game are changed to match the 360 controller, the biggest problem is with Jamjars who rhymed his instructions, they made no effort to come up with new rhymes.

** ''[[{{VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay}} Conker's Bad Fur Day]]'' had a port for Xbox One in the ''Rare Replay'' compilation, some changes:

*** The opening cutscene where Conker cuts the N64 logo with a chainsaw is removed, so is the part where Conker pulls the Rareware logo from his pocket.

*** Also, similar changes were made in the Xbox remake ''Conker: Live and Reloaded''.

* Game designer James Ernest developed a game in which players are {{Diabolical Mastermind}}s competing to construct the most stylish act of BondVillainStupidity. 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 Bond's name, it was retitled ''James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game''. The official product description had even included the line, "We'd tell you what it was once called, but we'd rather not get another letter." In 2016 it was re-retitled ''Before I Kill You, Mister Spy''.

** A particularly egregious example involves an episode of ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' with Music/MilliVanilli as guest stars. Their, erm, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 it's obviously not on DVD. The Italian dub still has the Milli Vanilli songs in it anyway.

* The fifth episode of ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife'' has a scene where the characters see a location similar to [[Anime/CastleInTheSky Laputa]]. While the name remains uncensored (possibly because it's not the [[Literature/GulliversTravels only fictional Laputa]]), the word "Balse!" is bleeped for this reason, as that line makes it clear that they were referencing the Creator/StudioGhibli film (that, and the fact that Sora and Shiro are suddenly cosplaying as Pazu and Sheeta).

* Promotional material for the ''LightNovel/{{Oreimo}}'' anime romanizes Saori [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Bajeena]]'s name as "Saori Vageena".

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' was going to use Music/MauriceRavel's ''Bolero'' for its opening theme, until the developers found out it was still copyrighted, forcing its last-minute replacement with a slowed-down arrangement of the Overworld theme.

** Wrestling/TheUndertaker gets it just as bad in DVD releases, with Kid Rock's "American Badass" and Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'" being replaced by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwyaQfYAYJA this]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLkbkB5opfM this]] respectively.
** The [=YouTube=] version of Wrestling/TripleH's Wrestling/WrestleMania entrance edits out Metallica's "For Who The Bell Tolls".

* This has even happened to {{Animutation}}s. 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 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvfkvw-luGU the YouTube version]] of Dwedit's "[=JamezBond=]" replaces his picture with a silhouette filled with text {{lampshad|eHanging}}ing the situation (seen above).

* When ''WebAnimation/WeeblAndBob'' was moved from the Mr Weebl YouTube channel to HUHA!, several copyrighted songs were removed. The changes remained when Mr Weebl re-uploaded them on his own account in 2020.

[[quoteright:275:[[WebAnimation/{{Animutation}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dmca_2695.png]]]]

* This has even happened to WebAnimation/{{Animutation}}s. 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 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvfkvw-luGU the YouTube version]] of Dwedit's "[=JamezBond=]" replaces his picture with a silhouette filled with text {{lampshad|eHanging}}ing the situation (seen above).

** In the late 2010s, the ''Sonic'' comic had to remove hundreds of characters and concepts due to legal issues with former writer Creator/KenPenders and it was decided that the "Endangered Species" story arc would be rewritten to accommodate this, with the story's original happy ending being changed to having the planet's entire Echidna population being banished to another dimension. Issue 243, the first part of the storyline, was already mostly finished when this was decided and couldn't be significantly changed before release. Instead, the editors quickly and haphazardly removed as many references to Penders' work from the text as possible, with the names of characters and locations being deleted and replaced by other terms and descriptors that used a much more bold font, inadvertently identifying which parts of the script was being altered.

* Creator/ArchieComics ended up altering two covers to their ''ComicBook/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|ArchieComics}}'' series - issue 8, which had Creator/MarvelComics heroes fighting in a cloud of dust, and ''Sonic Super Special'' #7, which not only had the Creator/ImageComics heroes on it, but two of Ken Penders' creations on it -- during various reproductions, such as cover scans on ''Sonic Mega Collection''.

* When ''[[WebAnimation/WeeblAndBob]]'' was moved from the Mr Weebl YouTube channel to HUHA!, several copyrighted songs were removed. The changes remained when Mr Weebl re-uploaded them on his own account in 2020.

* Some broadcast versions of ''Film/InspectorGadget'' cut out the shot of the Yahoo! billboard falling, as well as cutting the site's jingle and name out of the hero's next line.

** In many cases, whole scenes were removed. {{Creator/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 "Dogs" by Music/PinkFloyd. Emily Vanderwerff of Website/Vox has [[https://www.vox.com/2014/11/3/7145231/shows-not-on-dvd-music-rights-wonder-years-wkrp a whole article about this]].

** WWE does this for their video library, which spans many, many older promotions (including WCW): when they don't want to pay for the rights to a theme, they either use an alternate theme or cut out the offending entrance. This censorship even applies to other audio: Michael Buffer did a fair amount of ring announcing in WCW, and this is usually dubbed over (or cut out) to avoid paying royalties; a similar case occurs often with Wrestling/JesseVentura's WWF commentary.

* ''[[WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers SMG4]]'': Due to Website/{{YouTube}}'s copyright rules becoming stricter, many episodes were temporarily taken down for using copyrighted music for certain scenes. All of these episodes were later reuploaed, albeit with the scenes containing the music being completely muted with no explanation given in the episode.

* The fifth episode of ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife'' has a scene where the characters see a location similar to [[Anime/CastleInTheSky Laputa]]. While the name remains uncensored (possibly because [[NamesTheSame it's not the]] [[Literature/GulliversTravels only fictional Laputa]]), the word "Balse!" is bleeped for this reason, as that line makes it clear that they were referencing the Creator/StudioGhibli film (that, and the fact that Sora and Shiro are suddenly cosplaying as Pazu and Sheeta).

** A similar issue also occurred in "Pingu Helps With Incubating". In the original version, there are scenes where Pingu turns on a record player and dances with a song. The song was the Music/VideoKids hit "Woodpeckers from Space". The redubbed version replaced the music with an instrumental version of David Hasselhoff's "Pingu Dance" (which would be the redubbed version's opening theme).

* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' Season 1 DVD had the sketch with WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead joining the WesternAnimation/TeenTitans removed from the episode due to legal issues. The resulting episode ended up suspiciously short. Syndication and international airings, as well as Hulu and HBO Max, kept the sketch intact, as well as in disc 2 of the Season 5 dvd. Most fans agree that this is an odd case for a show that has been known to treat the concept of fair use as a mere suggestion.
* Averted, but only slightly in the case of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit- during the creation of many early Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, the title card would feature Walt Disney's name in big letters. As episodes went on, Walt's name would be suspiciously shrunk in favor of Winkler Productions(the parent company who commissioned the shorts) receiving larger and larger billing. Winkler Productions would keep asking to have his name struck completely from the card during the entire relationship attempt to obscure and hide Walt's name (unbeknownst to Walt, they held the copyright to the character AND were stealing away his artists.) Eventually, Winkler Productions took over the cartoon from Walt and his name was struck from the cartoons altogether. Future showings of Oswald cartoons made in the wake of Mickey Mouse's incredible popularity tried to tie the cartoon back to Walt, but ultimately the damage was already done. Many of the cartoons that have been recovered since then have mysteriously appeared missing the frames of the title cards, and reproductions based off the very first title card with Walt's name receiving larger billing have been used as a result.

** The review of ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' removed the opening credits on it's 2016 reupload due to usage of the opening song from [[WesternAnimation/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas the 1966 special]].

* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' Season 1 DVD had the sketch with WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead joining the WesternAnimation/TeenTitans removed from the episode due to legal issues. The resulting episode ended up suspiciously short. Syndication and international airings, as well as Hulu kept the sketch intact, as well as in disc 2 of the Season 5 dvd. Most fans agree that this is an odd case for a show that has been known to treat the concept of fair use as a mere suggestion.