Quite so, the law changes and IP law has been put under great stress the last 10 years or so. However I do not in fact refer to "old" standards; plots, concepts, names are not copyrightable in Sweden, in our present time, and they probably will not in the future.
My point is that, while the black-letter law still says those things can't be copyrighted, if you look at actual caselaw, more and more things are being ruled ownable. Has an actual plot been ruled copyrightable yet? I doubt it--but some things almost as nebulous have been. And there are cases pushing the bounds every day.
Games for example have a weaker protection in Europe as compared to the US. Game rules can not be patented, nor can they be copyrighted as such. The higher demand of originality also makes a lot of game rule descriptions non-copyrightable.
According to what law there is on the matter, games probably can not be copyright or patented (save if there are actual physical components) in the US either.[0] Unless the first directly-on-point case to get to the courts has lots of money on the side of the game-patenter or -copyrighter, and not much money for the opposition. :-( Problem is, the USPTO has been granting patents on lots of things lately that are almost certainly explicitly denied patent recognition ("one-click shopping", compression algorithms, "tapping"). But until it actually goes to court, or Congress steps in, we're not likely to have a reconciliation (changing the laws or revoking a bunch of patents).
I think this, like your talk of derivative works, is comparing the /de facto/ situation in the US with the /de rigeur/ situation in Sweden/EU. If there is a difference, i think it mostly boils down to laxer enforcement--or, more precisely, enforcement more in favor of large IP-owning corporations--in the US; the actual laws are *very* similar.
[0] Ryan, among others, has made a very convincing argument that, should a case about RPG copyrightability go to court today (or any time in the last decade or more) it would be ruled that an RPG, including the mechanics, can be copyrighted, at least as a total work. Right now, i'm glossing over that possibility, but it shouldn't be discounted--given both the current climate WRT IP, and the unusual composition of RPGs (game rules, fiction-like creation, and more, all interwoven), he is quite possibly right. It just hasn't happened yet.
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woodelf <*>
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