History Main / ClumsyCopyrightCensorship

* Up until recently, after losing a lawsuit with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature in 2002, any Wrestling/{{WWE}} footage before their name change, any time the initials "WWF" were mentioned, the audio suddenly went dead just around the letter "F"; in the same vein, any time the WWF's Attitude Era "scratch" logo was shown on screen, it was covered by {{Pixellation}} (from on-screen graphic logos down to the WWF patch on referee's shirts)[[note]]Which made some late Wrestling/AttitudeEra stuff completely unwatchable when released on DVD because that logo is ''everywhere'' and the constant blurring is really distracting[[/note]], and the on-screen "bug" of the logo was covered up by a black-bordered version of the current WWE logo. Show titles and lower-thirds were also edited. As of this writing, however, it seems that WWE has managed to regain the rights to show their older WWF footage with the logo and initials intact. (A settlement was apparently reached with the World Wide Fund for Nature.

* Up until recently, after losing a lawsuit with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature in 2002, any Wrestling/{{WWE}} footage before their name change, any time the initials "WWF" were mentioned, the audio suddenly went dead just around the letter "F"; in the same vein, any time the WWF's Attitude Era "scratch" logo was shown on screen, it was covered by {{Pixellation}} (from on-screen graphic logos down to the WWF patch on referee's shirts)[[note]]Which made some late Wrestling/AttitudeEra stuff completely unwatchable when released on DVD because that logo is ''everywhere'' and the constant blurring is really distracting[[/note]], and the on-screen "bug" of the logo was covered up by a black-bordered version of the current WWE logo. Show titles and lower-thirds were also edited. As of this writing, however, it seems that WWE has managed to regain the rights to show their older WWF footage with the logo and initials intact. (A settlement was apparently reached with the World Wide Fund for Nature, the charity which instigated WWE's name change.)

* Up until recently in any Wrestling/{{WWE}} footage before their name change, any time the initials "WWF" were mentioned, the audio suddenly went dead just around the letter "F"; in the same vein, any time the WWF's Attitude Era "scratch" logo was shown on screen, it was covered by {{Pixellation}} (from on-screen graphic logos down to the WWF patch on referee's shirts)[[note]]Which made some late Wrestling/AttitudeEra stuff completely unwatchable when released on DVD because that logo is ''everywhere'' and the constant blurring is really distracting[[/note]], and the on-screen "bug" of the logo was covered up by a black-bordered version of the current WWE logo. Show titles and lower-thirds were also edited. As of this writing, however, it seems that WWE has managed to regain the rights to show their older WWF footage with the logo and initials intact. (A settlement was apparently reached with the World Wide Fund for Nature, the charity which instigated WWE's name change.)

* The original runs of ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'', and ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' included covers of popular songs during action sequences. While the songs are retained on some early VHS releases of ''Super Show'' and one [=DVD=] of ''Adventures'', reruns and later home video releases replace them with instrumentals of original songs.
** A particularly egregious example involves an episode of ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' with Music/MilliVanilli as guest stars- which first aired two weeks before they confirmed they were lip-synching their music the entire time.. There, 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.

* ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'', being a free-to-watch web series, has pretty much no restrictions when it comes to showing and naming the games and consoles the Nerd reviews, including ''VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' for the UsefulNotes/Atari2600, but the commercially released ''Film/AngryVideoGameNerdTheMovie'' changes the game's name to "Eee Tee" and crudely alters the box art and the graphics to feature an ''incredibly'' stupid-looking, but technically copyright-friendly alien. Even though the censorship seems to break the continuity of the web series, an entire episode was made by editing the actual game footage back into the game review segment from the movie and the real cover art has been shown since, further calling attention to how silly it is.

* ''The Big Fix'' includes a lovely scene with Richard Dreyfuss preparing for a date, with Leon Redbone's "I Wanna Be Seduced" as the BGM. Sadly, for the VHS release, the song had to be replaced with generic instrumental music. Fans assiduously record the movie every time it shows up on TCM, while holding out hope for a DVD release.

* ''The Story of Techno Viking'', about an anonymous shirtless dancer at the 2000 F*ckparade who caught the interest of the internet, was forced to crudely black out every instance of him showing up in the film due to lawsuits.

* ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' fell into the public domain in 1974, but in 1993, Republic Pictures (now owned by Paramount), claimed a copyright on the music. This eventually prompted such streaming services as Tubi and Pluto to post the movie with updated music. The latter print also boasts less accurate writing credits, listing Creator/CharlesDickens instead of Philip Doren Stern as the author of the original tale.

* ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' fell into the public domain in 1974, but in 1993, Republic Pictures (now owned by Paramount), claimed a copyright on the music. This eventually prompted such streaming services as Tubi and Pluto to post the movie with updated music.

* In ''Film/{{Grease}}'', there's a scene that takes place in a diner with a giant Coca-Cola sign in the background. Or, rather, a giant blur that was supposed to be a Coca-Cola sign before Pepsi, one of the film's chief sponsors, protested the ProductPlacement.

* Music/{{Beck}}'s head is blurred out in the beginning of his "Loser" video, because he was wearing a ''Star Wars'' mask that he did not get permission for.

* In ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'', Creator/TerryPratchett seemingly gets away with [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings a one-shot character who pursues a boat down a mighty river, tries to get aboard, and explains that it's his birthday]]. This wizened entity with large frog-like eyes is promptly bashed over the head with an oar and thrown back overboard. Pratchett seemingly got away with it. But a couple of books down the line, much reference is made to a small folk who carry swords that glow blue in the presence of dour implacable evil - specifically, [[EvilLawyerJoke lawyers]]. You wonder what legal missives flew back and forth in the meantime.

** 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 the parts of the script that had been altered.

* Later issues of the edited edition of Nelvana's dub of ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'' replaced the ending theme ("No Nagging" by French Eurodance group Froggy Mix) with a instrumental of Dave Dore's theme song for said version.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' features many references to American and British musicians in the form of both character names and [[PsychicPowers Stand abilities]], which creates a problems for dubs in places where the producers would get sued into oblivion for it. Early adaptations simply transliterated names differently like [[Music/MariahCarey Mahrahia]], [[Music/TheJGeilsBand J. Gail]], and [[Music/{{Devo}} D'Bo]]. The more complete English language releases post-2012 instead go for similarly sounding or similarly themed names, particularly for Stands. Sometimes this actually works out well, like turning [[Music/PinkFloyd Crazy Diamond]] into "Shining Diamond" (preserving the [[Music/WishYouWereHere1975 "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"]] nod), or [[Music/FreddieMercury Made in Heaven]] to "[[{{Pun}} Maiden]] Heaven", but more often than not it just gives audiences both new and old instant classics like [[Music/GreenDay Green Tea]], [[Music/BadCompany Worse Company]], and [[Music/LimpBizkit Flaccid Pancake]].

* The North American release of ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' wasn't able to get the rights for the either opening or the first ending, replacing them with instrumental pieces from the series' soundtrack. Not only is the opening track blatantly mismatched to the animation (because it replaces upbeat rock themes with an ominous orchestral piece), latter releases of both still have the sing-along Japanese lyrics for the songs that use to be there!

* Mocked in the Billy Wilder film ''Film/OneTwoThree'', revolving around Jimmy Cagney as a Coca-Cola exec in West Berlin just before the rise of the Wall. Creator/JoanCrawford, at the time a major stockholder of Pepsi, was enraged by what she saw as blatant product placement, and demanded that Wilder use Pepsi in the film. He did — at the very end. Cagney's character puts a nickel (or at least a five-pefennig piece) into a Coke machine... and gets a bottle of Pepsi. He makes a disgusted mugging face at the camera as the movie ends.

* In ''Film/WaynesWorld'', there's a gag that takes place in a musical instrument store in which Wayne attempts to play "Stairway to Heaven" on guitar, only to find out he's broken [[CantYouReadTheSign one of the store's rules]] in doing so. Or at least that's what he played in the original theatrical release. On home video releases, the riff is overdubbed with a generic one, though the sign with the rule remains unchanged.

* ''Film/FreddyGotFingered'' was originally going to have a brief ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' parody scene, but they couldn't get the rights to "The End" by Music/TheDoors, and since it needed that song to work, the scene was cut. The sequence was put on the DVD as a DeletedScene: Since they ''still'' couldn't get the rights, the audio track is Tom Green explaining the situation and recommending that the viewer turn the volume down and cue up "The End" themselves.

** Originally, ''Videogame/SonicSpinball'' had the title screen themes of ''Videogame/SonicTheHedgehog1'' and ''Videogame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' for its title screen music until the composer was informed that he did not have the rights to compose the song. So a new title screen theme had to be composed last minute. The very first copies of ''Sonic Spinball'' retain the original title screen theme whilst all other copies are the edited version.

* The accordion music for the original version of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Pingu}}'' episode "Pingu Has Music Lessons From His Grandfather" was deleted from the re-soundtracked Sprout airings and DVD prints because the producers were unable to get a copyright clearance for it. The original version with the censored music were only found on the UK VHS release for ''Building Igloos'' and on Creator/CartoonNetwork airing.

* The print of the WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon "Mickey's Surprise Party" used for "The Spirit of Mickey", is altered to remove refrerences to Nabisco at the end by digitally editing the background to avoid ProductPlacement and having Creator/RussiTaylor redubbing Minnie's lines at the end. Russi's new lines clash badly with her original voice (provided by Marcellite Garner) and the sound quality of the rest of the cartoon. At any rate, the cartoon was later presented in its original form on the first ''Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color'' set.

* The print of the WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon "Mickey's Surprise Party" used for "The Spirit of Mickey", is altered to remove refrerences to Nabisco at the end by digitally editing the background to avoid ProductPlacement and having Creator/RussiTaylor redubbing Minnie's lines at the end. Russi's new lines clash badly with the original voice (Marcellite Garner) and sound quality of the rest of the cartoon. At any rate, the cartoon was later presented in its original form on the first ''Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color'' set.

* On "The Spirit of Mickey" VHS tape, the print of the WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon "Mickey's Surprise Party" is edited to remove the ProductPlacement of Nabisco cookies in the end by digitally editing a background and having Creator/RussiTaylor redubbing some of Minnie Mouse's lines. The former change is acceptable, but Russi's new lines painfully clash with the sound quality of the rest of the cartoon. At any rate, the cartoon was later presented unedited on the first ''Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color'' set.

* Up until recently in any Wrestling/{{WWE}} footage before their name change, any time the initials "WWF" were mentioned, the audio suddenly went dead just around the letter "F"; in the same vein, any time the WWF's Attitude Era "scratch" logo was shown on screen, it was covered by {{Pixellation}} (from on-screen graphic logos down to the WWF patch on referee's shirts), and the on-screen "bug" of the logo was covered up by a black-bordered version of the current WWE logo. Show titles and lower-thirds were also edited. As of this writing, however, it seems that WWE has managed to regain the rights to show their older WWF footage with the logo and initials intact. (A settlement was apparently reached with the World Wide Fund for Nature, the charity which instigated WWE's name change.)

* Originally, the 1989 UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis game ''VideoGame/TheRevengeOfShinobi'' featured doppelgangers of ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'', Franchise/{{Terminator}} (who turns green à la ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk''), ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}},'' and ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' (who turns into ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'') as boss villains. None of these were licensed in the slightest. Rereleases of the game gradually replaced the bosses with often bizarre sprites (and Batman into ''Franchise/{{Devilman}}'')... with the exception of Spider-Man, who was later recolored into the genuine character (and fleeing instead of morphing into the Devilman knockoff) under license from Marvel because Sega gained the Spidey game rights at the time of the rereleases (See ''VideoGame/SpiderManVsTheKingpin''). Its latest revision for the ''UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole'' and subsequent releases recolored the Spider-Man boss pink (Creator/{{Activision}} held the Spider-Man license around the time of the game's Virtual Console release).

* The Japanese audio track on the original Creator/{{Funimation}} release of ''Manga/{{Kodocha}}'' simply cuts out at one point in the first episode because the record label for the band Tokio wouldn't allow their music to be used. This also led to the Season 1 theme being replaced with the season 2 theme, creating spoilers galore. This was adverted in the Creator/DiscotekMedia rerelease, where due to a change in management in the label (the old manager passed away in 2019 and his daughter took his place), the offending cameo and song remained intact. The same thing happened to ''The Manga/SkullMan'' and ''Manga/AkazukinChacha'''s home video releases.

* On the PSP and PS4 ports of ''VideoGame/PaRappaTheRapper'', P.J. Berri and Katy Kat ordering chocolate frosties in the intro have the "frosty" part muted in their dialogue, most likely due to the Wendy's company placing a copyright on the word. Despite this, a sign that reads "Frosty" can still clearly be seen in the background at certain points.

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': The trade paper back collection ''Regression'' includes issue 296, which had a guest appearance by Rom, a character based on a Parker Brothers toy. Since Marvel no longer has the rights to Rom, the pages on which he appears aren't reprinted, and instead there's a text summary which refers only to a "heroic alien cyborg".

* The Teen Titan named "Protector" owes his existence to this trope. In the '80s, the ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' creators Wolfman and Perez created a series of anti-drug PSA comics, and discovered at the last minute that (since the comics were appearing in a weird licensed context), they couldn't use Robin (who was licensed out elsewhere). So, they drew over Robin wherever he appeared as a new character, the Protector. This leads to a bad case of RememberTheNewGuy, since he's just ''there,'' without introduction, and acts like he's in charge (as Robin was).

** The home video and DVD versions of ''WesternAnimation/TheWrongTrousers'' in the US had some of the songs replaced -- "HappyBirthdayToYou" in Gromit's birthday card, and "[[Theatre/SouthPacific Happy Talk]]" and "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" on the penguin's organ. Presumably these songs are either public domain or much cheaper to acquire the rights to in Britain.

* Mocked in the Billy Wilder film ''Film/OneTwoThree'', revolving around Jimmy Cagney as a Coca-Cola exec in West Berlin just before the rise of the Wall. Creator/JoanCrawford, at the time a major stockholder of Pepsi, was enraged by what she saw as blatant product placement, and demanded that Wilder use Pepsi in the film. He did — at the very end. Cagney's character puts a nickel (or at least a five-pfennig piece) into a Coke machine... and gets a bottle of Pepsi. He makes a disgusted mugging face at the camera as the movie ends.

* The broadcast versions of ''Film/DemolitionMan'' remove all references to Taco Bell. Which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a pretty huge joke in the movie with a full scene there.

* ''The Big Fix'' includes a lovely scene with Richard Dreyfuss preparing for a date, with Leon Redbone's "I Wanna Be Seduced" as the BGM. Sadly, for the VHS release the song had to be replaced with generic instrumental music. Fans assiduously record the movie every time it shows up on TCM, while holding out hope for a DVD release.

* ''Film/PhantomOfTheParadise'' is a rather unfortunate case. Antagonist Swan's record label, Swan Song, was featured in many scenes, including long shots and panning shots. At about the same time they were filming, Music/LedZeppelin manager Peter Grant started a ''real'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Song_Records record label]] with the name, and beat Phantom by a couple months with their first album release. Grant threatened to block release of the film, so [[Creator/BrianDePalma dePalma]] and his editor ''very poorly'' covered up the offending words with the new label name, Death Records. Even worse, several long take scenes with too much movement were reedited so as to not show the original name, wasting the long single take shots. That name was '''everywhere.''' [[http://www.swanarchives.org/Production_Fiasco.asp Luckily, the original takes survive in the hands of a fan]], and was shown in a special feature on Shout Factory's blu-ray release.

* In ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'', Creator/TerryPratchett seemingly gets away with [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings a one-shot character who pursues a boat down a mighty river, tries to get aboard, and explains that it's his birthday]]. This wizened entity with large frog-like eyes is promptly bashed over the head with an oar and thrown back overboard. Pratchett seemingly got away with it. But a couple of books down the line, much reference is made to a small folk who carry swords which glow blue in the presence of dour implacable evil - specifically, [[EvilLawyerJoke lawyers]]. You wonder what legal missives flew back and forth in the meantime.

* ''Series/TwentyOneJumpStreet'' suffers from this. While the licensed music wasn't the ''whole'' draw of the show, it was an important part of the atmosphere, and lyrics were often used to communicate plot, which makes chunks of some DVD episodes make very little sense now that they're backed by nothing but elevator music. The [=DVD=]s still sold enough to finish the show, possibly because there don't seem to be many bootlegs in circulation...

** "The Evil of the Daleks" had the Beatles' "Paperback Writer" playing in a bar. For the narrated cassette release (the story has been lost, but the soundtrack survives), the whole scene was deleted. (Luckily, it's not crucial; the plot probably still makes sense without it.) For the CD and animated versions, the dialogue was filtered out so that the Beatles track could be replaced with an easier to license alternative.

** Same thing for MTV's ''Cribs'' in syndication, where all the music was replaced with dull atmosphere music and all mentions of MTV were edited out.
* ''Series/TourOfDuty'' was filled with music that was popular during its Vietnam War setting but it all had to be replaced with soundalike music that for the DVD release.
* ''Series/TheState'' was long thought unreleasable due to its extensive used of licensed music. It eventually ''did'' come out - with all of the music clumsily removed. One of the deleted scenes (at a dance) is utterly silent [[OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope (with prior text disclaimer)]] because the song is a such a large part of the scene they had to cut out all of the sound in it. It's a just a big long deleted scene with no sound watching people dance and move their mouths.

** Especially annoying in the American (or at least, iTunes) version of the Vietnam Special, where Clarkson says "cue the music", meaning the theme song from ''Series/TheATeam'' (which the show is famous for using in the UK)...and we then hear a completely different song. Of course, Clarkson could have meant ''different'' music -- after all, he only said "the music" -- until James May starts humming the A-Team song over the new soundtrack.
*** Even worse, when the American Flag painted motorcycle is brought out, you now hear the Star Spangled Banner instead of the original Born in the USA. This makes toe joke about thunder and the road fall flat.

** In January 2017 (halfway through Season 34), the show's music package was overhauled. However, one week of episodes aired in April 2017 was taped prior to the music change, so the new music cues had to be dubbed in. This resulted in several sloppy audio edits, and a couple instances where the old music was accidentally untouched. Similarly, the weekend rerun feed (consisting of episodes from Season 33) and Summer 2017 reruns of episodes before the music change were altered accordingly.

** Averted in the Season 1 episode "Looking For Lucky", where Alf singing "Old Time Rock & Roll" by Music/BobSeger, using a cucumber as microphone, was not removed.

* The Netflix versions of several episodes of ''Series/StillGame'' suffer from this. One episode has an entire segment trimmed away to almost nothing (where Isa tells Archie the Hermit about everything that's happened in the last 40 years) but the worst offender is the episode ''Wireless'', where Jack, Victor and Winston try to track down an old record (''Rose Marie'' by Nelson Eddy) to play on a hospital radio show for a dying man. In the Netflix version, the song (along with the moment where the man dies peacefully as he listens to it) is never heard. As with the DVD releases, the opening theme tune is also changed from its original broadcast version. Strangely, the Christmas & Hogmanay Specials DVD has the stand-in theme for three episodes, but the original theme intact on the fourth.

* When ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' was released on DVD, the final sketch from the sixth episode ("Tony of Plymouth (Sword Fight)") of the first series had its music changed from "The Sea Hawk" to a new piece of music, due to copyright issues. Unfortunately, unlike the example for the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Revelation of the Daleks", the effort to replace "The Sea Hawk" to a new piece of music was subpar at best, thus drowning out most of the dialogue.

* In reruns and streaming copies of ''Series/ThirtyRock'', the subtitles state different songs than what is played because of copyright. For example, in the episode "Jack The Writer," Tom Jones' "She's a Lady" played in the original broadcast, but "Who's that Lady?" by the Isley Brothers plays in later prints.

* Music/SonicYouth's ''Sister'' featured photo collage artwork on the front and back covers. Two of the images used had to be censored with large black bars for copyright reasons - one was an image of [[http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/lp/lp05a.jpg a little girl in the upper left hand corner]] of the front cover, the other was a photo of Disney's Magic Kingdom on the upper left hand corner of the back cover. A reissue of the album restores the Magic Kingdom picture on the back, sort of - [[http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=885158 most of what would make it recognizable is obscured by a conveniently placed barcode]].

* Music/SufjanStevens' album ''Music/{{Illinois}}'' (aka ''Come On, Feel the Illinoise!'') initially had cover artwork with Franchise/{{Superman}} flying through the sky in the background. Shortly after releasing the album, the record label realized they never got permission from Creator/DCComics to use Superman's likeness. To prevent a lawsuit, they took every copy that hadn't been sold yet and slapped a sticker of three balloons over the Man of Steel. Later reprintings of ''Illinois'' were less clumsy, and edited the cover art itself to replace Supes with either empty sky or the three balloons.

* Music/{{Megadeth}} has covered Nancy Sinatra's hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin" for their first album with slightly altered (more vulgar) lyrics. Ten years later the original lyrics' author, Lee Hazlewood, complained about the version being "vile and offensive" and demanded it being pulled from future reissues. The remastered 2002 version of the album included the song with all modified parts from the original lyrics bleeped (and a [[Main/TakeThat Take That!]] from Dave Mustaine in the album's booklet, where he explained they decided to have some fun with the song because the original one sucked and called out Hazlewood on cashing those royalty checks he received for ten years before airing his grievances). "The Final Kill" remaster released in 2018 contains a re-recorded version of the song with Hazlewood's original lyrics intact.

* In the 1950's - 1970's, the Airfix model company released figure sets intended for tabletop wargaming that were tie-ins to then popular TV series, containing character figures based on the TV characters. When large parts of the Airfix range were bought out by figure manufacturers Heller and HaT for re-release in the 1990's/2000's, it was immediately noticeable that the sets were given more generic titles even though the contents were unchanged, despite the fact that TV shows like the original 1950's ''Series/RobinHood'', ''Series/TheHighChapparal'' and ''Tarzan of the Apes'' were just antiquated black and white memories. These became, respectively, things like "Early Mediaeval Knights and Men-At-Arms'', "English Longbowmen", "Cowboys, Design Two" and "Jungle Adventure". Even though the TV shows were largely forgotten, copyright law still applied.

** In the Japanese version of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', Konami got licensing deals with a number of snack food companies and they appear as a form of usable product placement (generally, brand name food items are used as an improved version of generic food items). In other territories, they didn't have the same deals, so the Doritos, Mountain Dew and curry brands are replaced by things like "T. Chips", "Lemon-Lime Soda", and "Future Curry".

* The Wii Virtual Console re-release of ''VideoGame/TecmoBowl'' simply blanked out all player names, leaving only their numbers behind, the reason is because [[{{Creator/ElectronicArts}} EA]] secured the rights to all teams and players from the NFL for the Madden series.

* All modern-day re-releases of ''VideoGame/CrazyTaxi'' renamed licensed eateries. For example, KFC was renamed to FCS (Fried Chicken Shack), and Pizza Hut is simply a "Pizza place". [[note]]Both of which are still clearly modeled after KFC and Pizza Hut restraunts[[/note]] Not only were the names of the eateries changed, but the soundtracks were completely replaced as well, so no more Music/TheOffspring or Music/BadReligion for you.

** Originally, ''Videogame/SonicSpinball'' had the title screen themes of ''Videogame/SonicTheHedgehog1'' and ''Videogame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' for its title screen music until the composer was informed that he did not have the rights to compose the song. So a new title screen theme had to be composed last-minute. The very first copies of ''Sonic Spinball'' retain the original title screen theme whilst all other copies are the edited version.

** Similarly, the original ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved Anniversary'' had to change the red crosses on the health backs to caduceuses; this is because the red cross is actually a trade mark of the, well, Red Cross, in addition to holding significance under international law that the organization doesn't want diluted by overexposure.

*** "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 it's ''Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts''.
*** The question "How many buttons has an official Nintendo 64 controller got?" (10) has been changed by "How many buttons has an official Xbox 360 controller got?" (13).

*** 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 rhymes his instructions -- they made no effort to come up with new rhymes.
** ''VideoGame/DiddyKongRacing'' had a remake for the Nintendo DS in 2007. In it, Banjo and [[{{VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay}} Conker]] were removed and replaced by Dixie Kong and Tiny Kong. The fact that Conker originally was meant for a cute and cuddly videogame that eventually changed into a gross and violent game also helps.
*** However, many other characters are still Rare property like Timber, Pipsy and Tiptup, the original copyright notice says Rare owns the game, the notice of the remake says Nintendo owns it, but some characters are still Rare property.

* This trope seems to be going on the rise when it comes to mobile games that utilize copyrighted characters without permission, especially the monster-raising MMORPG ones. This applies to the screenshots of the game in question, where the characters actually featured in-game are either covered up with [[CaptainErsatz Captain Ersatzes]] or left as silhouettes in order to dodge the app store's copyright violation detection. Another variation involves covering up the characters with bright white light from one corner/side while still keeping what's left of whatever implied features shown in the screenshot.

* In ''VideoGame/{{VVVVVV}}'', one of the rooms in the second Intermission stage is called [[VideoGame/WiiSports "Whee Sports"]]. When the game was submitted for a 3DS port, Nintendo initially denied it submission for this reason, and the room's name was promptly changed to [[LampshadeHanging "Copyright Infringement"]], a change that would stick for all future console ports.

* During late-season 3 of ''WebAnimation/NextGPoop'', Matt de Rojas started to notice Warner Music Group was forcing [=YouTube=] to mute any episode of the series that used The Rembrandts' "[[Series/{{Friends}} I'll Be There for You]]" as an opening theme. To prevent this (and [=YouTube=] later ''would'' unmute the episodes), any episode made in 2009 featured the Plain White T's' "Take Me Away" instead. However, anything else in the intro aside from the song remained unchanged, and as a result certain sections of the intro which synced to parts of the original song (there was one part that synced to the clapping section of the first verse of "I'll Be There for You") look sloppy and a little rushed.

** The 2011 Nostalgiaween episodes featured a parody of the intro to ''Series/TheXFiles'', complete with the theme music to that series. When Channel Awesome reuploaded the episodes in 2018, the ''X Files'' theme was replace with a different song entirely, though the credits for ''The Hauting'' play both the new theme as well as the theme to ''The X-Files''.

** This similarly also happened to the episode "VHS Vault Vol. 11 (D-I-V-O-R-C-E)", which had to be truncated due to one of the videos featured being copyright-claimed by another company who hasn't reissued it. This is especially ironic as Ben has positive feelings towards that particular title that was featured.

* The original runs of ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'', and ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' included covers of popular songs during action sequences. While the songs are retained on some early VHS releases of ''Super Show'' and one [=DVD=] of ''Adventures'', reruns and later home video release replace them with instrumentals of original songs.

** 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 Video Kids hit "Woodpeckers from Space". The redubbed version replaced the music with an instrumental version of Creator/DavidHasselhoff's "Pingu Dance" (which would be the redubbed version's opening theme).

* The ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'' villain Morbulus was originally named "Occulus." As he had eyes in the back of his head, this name made sense. However because there was a Creator/MarvelComics villain named that, Creator/HannaBarbera, fearful of incurring Marvel's wrath (even though Marvel never actually complained), redubbed all of the dialog to change Occulus' name to the somewhat less meaningful "Morbulus," which has nothing to do with the character's extra eyes. He is still identified as Occulus in model sheets and storyboards, though, and in a brief mention in a script written ''after'' the change was made. Apparently the writers still referred to him by his original name behind the scenes.

* Old syndication version of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E3ATaleOfTwoSantas A Tale of Two Santas]]" (as shown on Adult Swim, for example) had a small one during the scene when Bender tries to convince a family he is a good Robot Santa and says "But I come bearing Tri-ominos!" while holding a Tri-ominos box. Yet in closed captioning it says TabletopGame/{{Stratego}}. It was fixed in DVD release, and in subsequent closed captioning for streaming services.

* "Farewell to Music/JohnDenver" (a very brief parody of "Annie's Song") was removed from ''Creator/MontyPython's Contractual Obligation Album'' and replaced with Terry Jones saying that the item had been omitted for legal reasons.

* The North American release of ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' wasn't able to get the rights for the first opening or ending, replacing them with instrumental pieces from the series' soundtrack. Not only is the opening track blatantly mismatched to the animation (because it replaces an upbeat rock theme with an ominous orchestral piece), latter releases of both still have the sing-along Japanese lyrics for the songs that use to be there!