There are games in Japan that are the interactive equivelent of fan fiction. They're released as non-profit by people unlikely to ever become professional developers and, as a result, professional developers tend to look the other way when these games get released onto the internet.
So when the developer of interactive novel Hanako created a mini-game in which you had to fight Mickey Mouse , he didn't expect to be sent an email from Disney demanding $78,000 in damages. He immediately shut the project down, closed the website and apologised to his fans:
"Thank you very much for playing Visual Novel "Hanako"
"Due to a major and intricate reasons, we were unavoidably close our site and stop the development of our game.
"From today, year 2012 January 26, We're closing "Hanako Official Site" for indefinite period.
"We appreciate the players whom supported us. Thank you very much."
Turns out that Disney knew nothing about the game and certainly wasn't planning to sue the developer for any amount of money. It was all a joke pulled by scammers. Despite that, the developer has obviously learnt a lesson and has chosen not to continue development on Hanako at this point.
