when it comes to copyright, i probably know just enough to be dangerous and i know absolutely nothing about gaming. it seems to me, however, that the game server would fall under derivative works? if they took the basic idea, didn't copy the code and built something new that improved on the original idea and performed better, how is that different from something like fan fiction? aren't there dozens of books by different authors based on star wars?

another example - a few years ago there was a dispute between two photographers in nyc. photographer 1 was up and coming, his works deemed "trendy". i think an example of his work was a big blow-up dog doll, sitting on a staircase. photographer 2 bought the same dog, found the same staircase and took the same picture. photographer 1 sued #2 and won. in this case, it was not a derivative work, it was a copy. if photographer 2 had used a different doll, or even had the dog surrounded by cans of dog food or something, then it would have been derivative.

this has been a really interesting discussion! yay!