User blog comment:Sprinklemist/Admin Post - Canon Name Usage/@comment-1874924-20111029173518/@comment-71.211.191.237-20111029195445

It's different with the season 4 characters in particular, because the use of most if not all of those names in fanfics predates the announcement of the ROTI cast. (The "grandfather clause" is a time-honored legal doctrine.) On the other hand, the possibility of being told, "you can't do that anymore" is something that all fanfic writers have to live with.

It's true that copyright enforcement is usually civil (i.e. suing people) instead of criminal. My point was that, had Kenzen continued to insist on using a canon name (with no identifiers) after being made aware of the copyright issue, he would have crossed the line between innocent error and intentional misconduct.