Do Fictional Characters Have Rights?

They may have rights soon in parts of Germany:

Politicians in Bavaria and Lower Saxony have proposed a new offence that will punish "cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters" inside games. Early drafts suggest that infringers should face fines or up to 12 months' jail for promoting or enacting in-game violence.

If this spreads, Steven King is in deep organic fertilizer.

I suppose the term “fictional” will be classified as an ethnic slur and replaced in decent society by “ontologically challenged.”

This has, of course, been anticipated.