This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Shadowbell: Umm...I'm pretty sure Zorro is public domain
Mister Six: What the hell happened to the rename tool? Anyway, trope moved from Writing Around Copyright as per the following discussion:
Burai: And the Great IP Mistake raises its head again ... Not to put too fine a point on it, this should be "Writing Around Trademarks", which are distinctly different from copyrights (for instance, trademarks have to remain in active commercial use while copyrights don't). You can't copyright single words like names, nor "characters" in the abstract sense; hence, the typical intellectual property protection applied to franchise characters is claiming their "names and distinctive likenesses" as trademarks.
Sikon: This is why RMS despises the term "intellectual property", and I wholly agree. This should be moved indeed.
Meems: I might have found an aversion notable enough to be mentioned: Jennifer Government. The book is set 20 Minutes into the Future and features Nike—yes, that Nike—assassinating people in order to make it look like people are getting murdered for their shoes. It's surprising the author hasn't been sued. I thought I should post it here first, since I know aversions are pretty controversial. It's up to you guys if it goes in or not.
- In Operation Darkness, Herbert West, the mad scientist with the ability to revive the other characters, had his surname altered to East for the English localization.
Nezumi: Moving this here. I added it in the first place, but it doesn't quite fall under this trope as written. It's... something, for sure, but I'm not sure what.
Rebochan: I did some cleanup. I pulled most of the Lupin entry because the Hemlock Sholmes character is obviously an Affectionate Parody, as the justification notes.
