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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 6005813" data-attributes="member: 463">The main thing would be to remove the names of characters like Harry Potter and Dumbledore.  JK Rowling ripped off a vast number of sources for her works; schoolboy boarding school fantasies are not an original or protectable genre - qv A Wizard of Earthsea for a much earlier example. Rowling used a lot of non-protectable 'story elements', and so can anyone else."The Da Vinci code" is clearly derivative of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" - but Dan Brown has good lawyers and it was found in court not to infringe HB's copyright, despite explicit references. OTOH in Herbert vs Ravenscroft infringement had been found, on very similar facts. Infringement of copyright through 'non literal copying' is a very grey area. But ideas as such are not protectable; that's why you want to sign a non-disclosure agreement before you present your movie pitch to those Hollywood execs. The ideas in your pitch are as a rule not protectable by copyright, no matter how original. It's only the expression of those ideas in the script or movie that is protected.</blockquote>