Going back on topic I also think that it would have been better for WotC not to send a C&D but a letter stating that with the pending release of the actual cards that the site conduct a review and remove any material that might become an infringement upon release. Thereby warning that a C&D would result once WotC had an actual product on store shelves.
The C&D didn't have anything to do with the release of power cards. It had everything to do with the fact that there were verbatim direct copies of the powers from the Player's Handbook, et al.
Also, why threaten a threatening letter? That's all a C&D is. In effect they say, "We see that you are using copyrighted material from books we published. Please remove the copyrighted material or else we may be forced to sue you for copyright infringement." That's it. I don't understand why people are getting hung up on the C&D.
As someone who made power cards and then put them up online back in summer 2008, I understand both the market for the product and the desires people had for pre-printed cards. After awhile I came to my senses and stopped making pre-printed cards because it IS copyright infringement. I focused on creating templates and left it at that. I use power cards from MSE that I co-designed, but for my own use and not distributed across the internet, which is neither copyright infringement nor illegal.
The issue is the distribution of copyrighted material not licensed away by the copyright holder. If WotC had distributed the powers under a Creative Commons License, then as long as the website was following the CCL there wouldn't be a problem. But they didn't. They own the whole copyright and no one has a right to distribute that without the express permission of WotC.
To put it another way - say I write a book of short stories (or poems, which is more likely for me) and then I publish them. If I go onto a website and someone is distributing some, but not all, of my poems that is copyright infringement. If I post a few of those poems on my website to garner interest, that's fine. But anyone who then takes that from my website and posts it on their's is also infringing my copyright.
Copyright gives the author of a product sole control over its distribution and protects their "right" to own the "copy" (that is the text of the product) until the date of his death +70 years.
