History Main / FanworkBan

* Avex is another notorious offender in this regard; many WebAnimation/{{Animutation}}s featuring music from their artists have had Website/YouTube videos taken down by their cease-and-desist orders.

** The mods of the official Discord server are especially harsh on mashups of ''Arcaea'' songs with Music/{{Cupcakke}} songs (a popular meme that has been done with much of the game's soundtrack), due to not only violating the "don't use in-game assets" policy but also because the latter's songs are extremely NSFW. This isn't met with just an "R4" citation, often times it will result in "we '''do not''' tolerate this content."

* Some authors also [[OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight seriously doubt fanfic writers' ability to write a story in that universe as well as the author can]]; this usually attracts detractors who claim the ''real'' reason for the ban is a concern that fanfic writers can write the characters [[BetterThanCanon better than the creator could]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Arcaea}}'' has a [[https://arcaea.lowiro.com/en/derivative_policy derivative works policy]] that bans, among other things:

** The mods of the official Discord server are especially harsh on mashups of ''Arcaea'' songs with Music/{{Cupcakke}} songs (a popular meme that has been done with much of the game's soundtrack), due to not only violating the "don't use in-game assets" policy but also because the latter's songs are extremely NSFW.

** The mods of the official Discord server are especially harsh on mashups of ''Arcaea'' songs with Music/{{Cupcakke}} songs, due to not only violating the "don't use in-game assets" policy but also because the latter's songs are extremely NSFW.

** The mods of the official Discord server are especially harsh on mashups of ''Arcaea'' songs that are mashed up with Music/{{Cupcakke}} songs, due to not only violating the "don't use in-game assets" policy but also because the latter's songs are extremely NSFW.

** The mods of the official Discord server are especially harsh on mashups of ''Arcaea'' songs that are mashed up with Music/CupcakKe songs, due to not only violating the "don't use in-game assets" policy but also because the latter's songs are extremely NSFW.

** Works with in-game assets like character portraits. This extends to memes as well, and in the official Discord server, posting memes with obviously-ripped graphical assets or audio assets (such as music) will be met with moderator intervention (however, if the meme is using a screenshot, it is okay).

** Works with in-game assets like character portraits. This extends to memes as well, and in the official Discord server, posting memes with obviously-ripped graphical assets will be met with moderator intervention (however, if the meme is using a screenshot, it is okay).

* KO_OP, the developer behind ''VideoGame/GoodbyeVolcanoHigh'', bans all discussion of the parody game ''VideoGame/SnootGame'' from their official channels, claiming it "wasn't made in good faith". A few reasons include ''Snoot Game'' being born from 4chan's /v/ board, taking liberties with the characterizations, one ending culminating with [[spoiler:Fang performing a school shooting]]. One major contention is the portrayal of Fang's gender identity; they are nonbinary, voiced by a nonbinbary voice artist, and KO_OP is comprised of many LGBT+ developers. In ''Snoot Game'', Fang's identity is belittled and questioned to the point where they self-mutilate their body, and in two endings, including the one closest to being a GoldenEnding, [[spoiler:Fang reject being nonbinary and detransitions into a cis woman named Lucy, invoking the idea that trans and nonbinary people are faking it for attention or [[CureYourGays can be cured]]]].

* Aurora4X: Steve is very protective of his game and initially banned all modding altogether at the threat of shelving the entire project, although he eventually relented and allow mods personally approved by him. The reason given was "to avoid false bug reports and competing versions".

Creators with their own pages.

* Creator/{{Nintendo}} is notorious for its historically ferocious protection of its intellectual properties. While they have stated that they [[http://kotaku.com/5585802/nintendo-doesnt-want-to-criminalize-obsessed-fans don't mind fan output]] ''per se'', they will come down on works that "diminish the dignity" of their properties or infringe on their ability to make money. This means that they tend to come down particularly hard on [[Rule34 explicit works]], {{Game Mod}}s, and {{Fan Game}}s, though they have a history of all sorts of crackdowns:
** Nintendo was widely criticized for [[https://www.engadget.com/2010-01-04-nintendo-shuts-down-zelda-fan-film-four-years-in-the-making.html issuing a cease-and-desist letter]] towards the makers of a ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]''-based FanFilm called ''The Hero of Time''. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130828010413/http://www.theherooftime.com/2009/12/the-hero-of-time-update-01-01-10/ A post on the fan film's now-defunct website]] seems to indicate that the makers of the film weren't too upset about the situation and were fairly understanding of Nintendo's perspective on the matter.
** For a period of time, Nintendo seemed to be sending constant cease-and-desist letters to all sorts of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' hentai fansites, which hit their peak alongside the franchise's peak in popularity during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After a [[https://boingboing.net/2004/10/27/nintendo-to-sue-suic.html very]] [[https://boingboing.net/2004/10/27/nintendo-lawyergram.html brief]] [[http://boingboing.net/2004/10/28/nintendo-apologizes.html misunderstanding]] with the site Suicide Girls[[labelnote:explanation]]According to the linked articles, Nintendo threatened to sue the site because they saw that it contained mentions of ''Metroid'' and ''Pokémon''. However, Nintendo didn't know that the context of the mentions was a user saying in his profile that he ''liked those video games'', not in relation to any NSFW content on the site. After they were made aware of the context of the mentions, Nintendo backed down and [[http://boingboing.net/2004/10/28/nintendo-apologizes.html apologized]] just one day after threatening to sue.[[/labelnote]], they're more lenient with how they approach the issue nowadays. The main exception to the leniency happens around the time of releasing new games, as Nintendo becomes very aggressive about taking down or otherwise heckling any and all ''Pokémon'' Rule 34 until about a month after the game's release. This is likely due to them not wanting a young child to stumble across NSFW ''Pokémon'' art while looking for information about the new games.
** In addition to ''Pokémon'' Rule 34, Nintendo has also taken down many ''Pokémon'' fangames, with the most notable case being ''Pokémon Uranium''. They even sent a cease and desist letter to Pixelmon, a ''Pokémon'' mod for ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' - while this did shut down the original mod, its assets were used to create new incarnations that Nintendo has yet to react to.
** Nintendo has gone so far as to obtain the rights to ''[[ParallelPornTitles Super Hornio Bros.]]'' specifically so they can ensure that it will never see a re-release.
** While it was never actually taken down by Nintendo, the company acted very wary of ''VideoGame/ProjectM'', a GameMod of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' designed to play more like ''Melee'' and be more suited to TournamentPlay. For a time, players could be banned automatically from the Miiverse network just for typing "Project M" or even "PM" (ostensibly for discussing "[[FelonyMisdemeanor criminal activity]]"). While the competitive ''Smash'' community was waiting for the cease-and-desist notice for years, it never came; this is generally believed by the ''Smash'' community to be caused by Nintendo not wanting to alienate the competitive community in the runup to ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU Smash 4]]''. When Nintendo became an official sponsor for Apex 2015, a popular tournament series heavily featuring ''Smash'' games, ''Project M'' was removed from the tournament's lineup. In the end, the makers of ''Project M'' decided to end it on their own terms, albeit due to their growing fears of Nintendo suing them.
** Nintendo hit ''VideoGame/AnotherMetroid2Remake'' ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a fan-made remake]] of ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'') with a DMCA takedown notice just two days after its release - though at that point, fans were able to [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes keep the game alive]]. It was later revealed that the takedown was at least somewhat driven by the fan game being released while Nintendo was developing their own ''Metroid II'' remake, which was released the following year as ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns''.
** Nintendo issued a [[http://fireside.gamejolt.com/post/dmca-notices-for-fangames-bzc9h583 DMCA takedown notice against the website GameJolt]], which caused a whopping ''562 games'' hosted on the site to be removed. [=GameJolt=], for its part, claims that "[d]evelopers affected by takedown notices should never lose data," so it remains to be seen what the final fate of these games will be.
** They send a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20210610092338/http://www.bootlegactionfigures.com/nomorepokemon.html cease-and-desist letter]] to the website Undiscovered Playthings, a website dedicated to pictures of bootleg toys, to take down their collection of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' toys. Apparently, they believed that the site was encouraging the sale of bootlegs of their products, which the site's owner believed was a wildly inaccurate assessment of the site (though he did remove the ''Pokémon'' collection from the site).
** ''Breath of the NES'' was a fan game inspired by the NES graphics prototype of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''. Nintendo sent the creators a cease-and-desist, so the game was briefly shut down while they addressed the issue. After a while, the game was released with different graphics than the NES prototype... [[AllForNothing and Nintendo sent out]] ''{{a|llForNothing}}nother'' [[AllForNothing cease-and-desist]], causing the game to be shut down entirely.
** ''[=Zelda30Tribute=]'' was a fan-made browser game based on ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'', with the original game's sprites presented in 3D. Shortly after its release, Nintendo sent out a cease-and-desist towards the fan game, forcing the creator to shut down the game.

* Tim Buckley, author of ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', issued a pretty derisive and considerably assholish cease-and-desist letter to an unsuspecting fan who dared to make a fan video about his comic. It was later discovered that Buckley was planning on making an animated series himself and sell it online at a considerably high price. Tim was able to get it off the series off the ground, eventually. And then it crashed and burned, but that's another story

* The creator of ''Webcomic/AvasDemon'' has explicitly disapproved of crossovers with her characters or concepts, which led to a fair amount of drama after a ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' crossover.

* KO_OP, the developer behind ''VideoGame/GoodbyeVolcanoHigh'', bans all discussion of the parody game ''VideoGame/SnootGame'' from their official channels, claiming it "wasn't made in good faith". A few reasons include ''Snoot Game'' being born from 4chan's /v/ board, taking liberties with the characterizations, one ending culminating with [[spoiler:Fang performing a school shooting]], and two endings including [[spoiler:Fang rejecting their nonbinary identity, when a good portion of KO_OP's developers are LGBT+ themselves]].

** ''VideoGame/OutRun 2'' includes modified Ferraris as unlockable vehicles, most likely as a GrandfatherClause; the original game famously features a topless Testarossa, which has never been officially mass-produced in real life.

** The Tetris Company is hugely protective of the ''Tetris'' brand. If you dare to use the name ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}''® or even so much as create a game that involves falling tetriminos, without paying the proper license fees and royalties, prepare for a cease-and-desist letter. They have sent DMCA takedown notices to Website/YouTube for videos just featuring unofficial ''Tetris'' clones. They have even gone as far as threatening legal action against fans who pointedly use only elements that cannot legally be copyrighted,[[note]]A U.S. federal court said so in ''Lotus Development Corp. v. Borland Int'l, Inc.'', 49 F.3d 807 (1st Cir. 1995). The Supreme Court was tied 4-4, though. 516 U.S. 233 (1996).[[/note]] using meritless legal claims for intimidation (in a strategy known as a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLAPP SLAPP]]). Their stance causes particular headaches to fans of ''VideoGame/TetrisTheGrandMaster'', which [[NoExportForYou wasn't released outside Japan]]. Ironically enough, ''Tetris'' was created in the Soviet Union by a government employee and was thus originally in the public domain.

* Toby Fox, creator of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', has said that while he is totally fine with fan work of all types, he would prefer that Rule34 work be given the #under''tail'' tag to keep it separate from the main body of work, because "It's a family friendly show!"

[[caption-width-right:350: ''"[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Let's-a]] [[SubvertedCatchphrase ban]]!"'']]

-->-- '''{{Website/Cracked}}''', [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120104205201/http://www.cracked.com/funny-162-fanfiction "Fanfiction"]]

Some creators don't like FanWork and actively discourage -- if not outright prevent -- fans from creating, posting, or publishing their fan work. Although such a ban encompasses all FanWork, it seems to happen most often to FanFiction; hence, most creators who try to enact a fanwork ban tend to be writers.

* On that front, some authors don't mind fanworks ''per se'', but they don't like seeing sexually explicit or other [[NotSafeForWork NSFW]] material involving their characters. There's quite a lot of it on the Internet, as exemplified by Rule34: "If it exists, there is porn of it -- no exceptions." Other than the above-stated personal disgust at seeing such things, creators may also be concerned that [[HarmfulToMinors younger readers]] could accidentally stumble upon them. Big content producers like Creator/{{Disney}} crack down particularly hard on this sort of thing, as it could otherwise harm the image they cultivate with their intellectual properties.
* Some authors also [[OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight seriously doubt fanfic writers' ability to write a story in that universe as well as the author can]]; this usually attracts detractors who claim the ''real'' reason for the ban is a concern that fanfic writers can write the characters [[BetterThanCanon better than the creator could]].
* Relatedly, creators may try to impose rules on what fans can write to ensure that fanfic is consistent with the main universe. This may involve [[EnforcedTrope enforcing]] tropes such as ElsewhereFic (fanfic writers are required to use their own characters to avoid any OOC moments), NoOriginStoriesAllowed (fanfic which deals with a character's backstory is forbidden, particularly if the creator plans to reveal it in a later installment), DoomedByCanon (if a character died in canon, a fanfic set earlier in the continuity cannot change their fate), SavedByCanon (a character cannot be killed off if they are still alive in canon) and OriginalFlavour (fanfics must resemble an official installment as closely as possible).
* Some works are subject to CreatorBacklash, and creators might discourage or ban fanworks of these works because they don't want to draw attention to them.

* ''Creator/ToeiAnimation'' is well known for being rather aggressive about their ''Franchise/DragonBall'' license with regards to fanworks. Creator/TeamFourStar, creators of ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'', had to fight tooth and nail to get the series finished with frequent periods where massive chunks of the series were pulled down by Toei's usage of the copyright claim systems on Youtube. After finishing the Cell saga, they decided to call it quits even after initially announcing the Buu saga because they were tired of fighting Toei to produce episodes, and most of them were declared effective PersonaNonGrata from working with Toei in any official capacity (after Creator/ChristopherSabat himself tried to get the major voice actors a Cameo in ''Kai'', which Toei got angry about), something many of them weren't happy with because many of their [=VAs=] want to break into professional voice acting, and Toei blacklisting them from working with Funimation sunk a great deal of their opportunities.

* {{Creator/Archie|Comics}}, concerned about the proliferation of Rule34 fanfics, has banned all fan fiction of ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' in general. That hasn't stopped people from putting up fan fiction and fan art on the Internet anyway, although more "official" venues still have to respect the ban; Website/FanFictionDotNet, for instance, took down its ''Archie'' section (but not its ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats'' section), but Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn still has one. The main exception is ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', since all ''[[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]]'' characters are owned by Creator/{{Sega}}, which is Japanese and doesn't mind nearly as much. (Creator/KenPenders, though, insists that any fan art of his characters include a copyright crediting him.)

* For a long time, [[Creator/JimButcher Jim Butcher's]] official position on ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' fanfiction was that there isn't any. Because, as he explains, if he knew there was fanfiction out there, he would be legally obliged to have it taken down, and [[IllPretendIDidntHearThat he didn't want to do that]]. He lifted the ban in 2010, so long as a disclaimer is included; his full policy can be found [[http://www.jim-butcher.com/posts/2010/new-fanfiction-policy here]].

** A fan translation of ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0 Final Fantasy Type-0]]'' on the PSP was around 75% complete before being issued a cease and desist. The MobilePhoneGame ''Final Fantasy Agito'' was also to receive a fan translation, but was cancelled due to a cease and desist, though the game was ultimately not localized in North America and Europe.

** ''Breath of the NES'' was a fan game inspired by the NES graphics prototype of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''. Nintendo sent the creators a cease-and-desist, so the game was briefly shut down while they addressed the issue. After a while, the game was released with different graphics than the NES prototype... [[AllForNothing and Nintendo sent out]] ''[[AllForNothing another]]'' [[AllForNothing cease-and-desist]], causing the game to be shut down entirely.

* Chris Hülsbeck has kindly asked not to have his video game tunes remixed, which is why there is a standing ban on derivative works at the Videogame Music Archive and only four remixes on Music/OverclockedRemix -- although there are also [[http://remix.kwed.org/index.php?chart==date-asc&page=1&search=Chris%20H%FClsbeck two pages worth of arrangements of his work on RKO, dating back as far as 2001]], as well as a 2008 remix of "Shades" by Austrian group Mind.in.a.box, so he may have relaxed his stance a bit.

* InUniverse example in ''VideoGame/TheHex''. Lionel Snill hates the mods created for ''Waste World'' enough to use legal action to deal with them. [[spoiler:However, that doesn't stop him from stealing the alien designs [=bandito7=] made to use for ''Vicious Galaxy 2.'']]

** ''VideoGame/{{FusionFall}} Legacy'', a fanmade continuation of the now-defunct ''[=FusionFall=]'' was originally planned to have ''Total Drama'' characters, with Chris [=McLean=] being shown off as an [=NPC=] before a claim from Fresh TV requested that he and the ''TD'' universe be removed.

** One particularly egregious example is their takedown of "''The [=SpongeBob SquarePants=] Movie Rehydrated''", a MultiAnimatorProject of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' that took 2 years to make (using nothing straight from the actual film, as the dialogue and soundtrack were recreated from scratch), and was taken down by Paramount within 30 ''minutes'' during its live premiere on [=YouTube=], not even allowing it to fully air before doing so. The backlash to the takedown was swift and instantaneous and grew to the point that the hashtag, #justiceforspongebob became a trending topic on Twitter not long after the takedown. Paramount would later walk back on it, allowing the video to be uploaded. Then it got taken down ''again'' only to be restored with the "Try [=YouTube=] Kids" restriction (which automatically disables comments and limits its recommendations to other users).

[[folder:Film]]

* Creator/{{Capcom}} requested that development of Invader Games' fan remake of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', titled ''Resident Evil 2 Reborn'', be halted only to invite them to work on the[[PromotedFanboy official remake]]. This is somewhat unusual for the company, who doesn't otherwise issue takedown notices to fan games unless they're pornographic or sold for money.

* Creator/{{Capcom}} requested that development of Invader Games' fan remake of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', titled ''Resident Evil 2 Reborn'', be halted only to invite them to work on the''[[PromotedFanboy remake]]. This is somewhat unusual for the company, who doesn't otherwise issue takedown notices to fan games unless they're pornographic or sold for money.

* Creator/{{Capcom}} requested that development of Invader Games' fan remake of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', titled ''Resident Evil 2 Reborn'', be halted -- [[PromotedFanboy only to invite them to work on the]] ''[[PromotedFanboy official]]'' [[PromotedFanboy remake]]. This is somewhat unusual for the company, who doesn't otherwise issue takedown notices to fan games unless they're pornographic or sold for money.

* Back when ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' was at the height of its' popularity, The Lyons Group [[https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1993-05-09-2919031-story.html would try and stop unauthorized appearances]] of Barney lookalike costumes at public events. They also sued the creators of a plush doll called Dino Buddy that resembled Barney.

* Creator/BlizzardEntertainment / Creator/ActivisionBlizzard:

** ''VideoGame/WarCraftIII: Reforged'' angered the fandom for multiple reasons, one of them being that any custom made map made by players is the "sole and exclusive property of Blizzard"). Many other big publishers like Bethesda or CD Projekt don't claim ownership over mods, they just claim the right to license or use them. It's widely seen as Blizzard overcompensating for famously missing out on {{VideoGame/DOTA}} because they'd rejected the creator of the original VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients's offer of a partnership, which {{Creator/Valve}} was all too happy to do.

* KO_OP, the developer behind ''VideoGame/GoodbyeVolcanoHigh'', bans all discussion of the parody game ''VideoGame/SnootGame'' from their official channels, claiming it "wasn't made in good faith". Considering that ''Snoot Game'' was born from 4chan's /v/ board, takes liberties with the characterizations, one ending culminates with [[spoiler:Fang performing a school shooting]], and two endings include [[spoiler:Fang rejecting their nonbinary identity, when a good portion of KO_OP's developers are LGBT+ themselves]], it's a hard point to argue against.