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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morrus" data-source="post: 9828470" data-attributes="member: 1">They are not. IP law is very clear on this.Your book isn't your idea. They are two different things. People can copy your idea; they can't copy your book.Ideas are cheap and easy to come by. As I've said before, I can have 30 ideas while enjoying a few beers at the pub. Hell, I just had one while I was typing that sentence! The idea is easy; the hard bit is the work, and that's what is protectable.There are three common broad things which are protectable:*1) Copyright -- the actual words/art. You can write a fantasy book where elves and dwarves fight a dark lord; you can't copy and paste LotR.2) Patents -- it's easy to have an idea to make a time machine. To protect it you need to patent an actual design.3) Trademarks -- logos and names which are used to convey to the customer who made the thing so they know what and from whom they are buying. You can write a fantasy adventure about heroes fighting dragons in a big war of dragons, but you can't call it Dragonlance or put the D&D logo on it.The thing that's not protectable--ideas.*there are other things, like trade secrets and stuff, but that's really beyond the scope of this post.</blockquote>