Without the permission of the copyright owner, faye copies the literary expression of game of thrones, changes the names of the main characters, and publishes the result as her own work. this isa. copyright infringement. b. a "fair use."c. a legitimate creative act. d. none of the choices.

This is A. copyright infringement.

Explanation:

In a case like this, it would be useful to know how much of Faye's work is actually taken from Game of Thrones --a real infrigement largely depends on the amount of content. However let's assume Faye took all the main plot points.

Taking the "heart" of a work and changing a few details, such as the name of the characters, is considred copyright infringement. This is also very common in music: song covers, even if they change the production or instrumentation to a certain degree, are still considered as infringing the law. To be considered Fair Use, the work must be transformative to a certain degree. This means, if Faye intented to make a parody of Game of Thrones, or if she simply took it as an influence and made a few references, it would be Fair Use and protected under copyright law.  But that doesn't seem to be the case.