"Steven Schveighoffer" <schvei...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:op.vh32icf3eav...@localhost.localdomain... > > The good news about copyright is that the ideas are not what's protected, > it's the expression of the ideas. So you can take ideas from copyrighted > material and rephrase it to continue innovating. >
Yea, until the copyright owner, which is most likely some deep-pocket corporation instead of the individual who actually created it in the first place, decides to sue you even though they know damn well they don't have a case. Since you're unlikely to be a filthy rich as them, you're forced to pay them a settlement even though you and them both know damn well that you're in the right and the courts *would* side with you *if* it were to actually go that far. This *does* happen, and it happens plenty. Even if piracy destroys the copyright system, so does corporate extortion.