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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1593735" data-attributes="member: 177">Rightly, but somewhat inacurately, as &quot;idea&quot; isn't an easy thing to define.&nbsp; You see, the copyright office is made by lawyers, not artists <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />It is true that you cannot copyright the idea of &quot;love&quot;.&nbsp; Nor even, &quot;lovers who are too proud and scared to admit their love&quot;.&nbsp; But you can copyright Rhett Butler's, &quot;Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn,&quot; both in word and image.&nbsp; And by becoming icons, Rhett and Scarlett have become ideas unto themselves, yet they are copyrightable.While it may not be explicit, copyright law implicitly says, &quot;you cannot copyright any idea that can be said simply.&quot;&nbsp; Ideas so subtle or complicated that the details of their presentation matter are effectively covered, however.&nbsp; And rightly so.&nbsp; Things that can be said simply are easy, and one can expect most sentient critters to come up with them independantly.&nbsp; Things that are subtle or complex, however, wil not usually be stumbled upon by others.&nbsp; In effect, copyright and patent law protect ideas that you would not reasonably expect many folks to stumble upon independantly.&nbsp; These more unique ideas have great value, while the simple ones do not.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 1593735, member: 177"] Rightly, but somewhat inacurately, as "idea" isn't an easy thing to define. You see, the copyright office is made by lawyers, not artists :) It is true that you cannot copyright the idea of "love". Nor even, "lovers who are too proud and scared to admit their love". But you can copyright Rhett Butler's, "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn," both in word and image. And by becoming icons, Rhett and Scarlett have become ideas unto themselves, yet they are copyrightable. While it may not be explicit, copyright law implicitly says, "you cannot copyright any idea that can be said simply." Ideas so subtle or complicated that the details of their presentation matter are effectively covered, however. And rightly so. Things that can be said simply are easy, and one can expect most sentient critters to come up with them independantly. Things that are subtle or complex, however, wil not usually be stumbled upon by others. In effect, copyright and patent law protect ideas that you would not reasonably expect many folks to stumble upon independantly. These more unique ideas have great value, while the simple ones do not. [/QUOTE]

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