Well from what I studied from my course, I learn that there's thing thing call - Separate Legal Entity.
Come to think of it, relating it to fiction stuff. Whenever you (yeah, I mean YOU, only YOU) create a fictional character, you'll usually characterize them based on someone, or at perhaps yourself. As time goes by, you make changes to his/her personality, making him/her as a distinct character from your original.
That's when the Separate Entity issue comes to play...
I mean, well, it has at least some indirect link between the two items.
My characters (there are seven which I'm pretty happy about them) are portrayed towards me myself, and my friends at the first place. Then though slowly, they become more and more distinct from what I originally thought for them being, and now I'm pretty happy of how they grow.
It's just like a newborn baby, with you being the father/mother. You'll teach them based on your own
value of life, and as they turn into child, teenager, and eventually adult, they'll choose their own path, or something.
Well, the world's pretty interesting, isn't it?