Too bad btrost dropped off this discussion. Given his (or her)interpretation of copyright law and the concept of intellectual property, I'd be interested in hearing what he (or she) thinks about fantasy rpgs, such as say... oh, I don't know, maybe Everquest, which are based on the intellectual property of the Tolkien estate. You can argue that Tolkien's work was based on northern european folklore, which obviously no one owns the rights to. However, Everquest's concept of "Halflings" is clearly based on Hobbits, which are an original "invention" of Tolkien. Jesus! He even calls Hobbits "Halflings" at some points in his copyrighted works. So did Everquest secure permission from the Tolkien estate to include Halflings in their game?