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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 5406377" data-attributes="member: 19675">While it is true you cannot lose copyright via mere inaction, a good attorney can argue that selective enforcement of your rights is evidence of at least a partial abandonment- something the Ninth Circuit has suggested is possible (such as in Microstar v. Formgen, 1998) but has not yet to my knowledge had a case in which they ruled that such had happened.I'm not saying that a ruling of partial abandonment is the probable outcome, but given that the courts are starting to entertain such ideas, WotC/Hasbro's legal department may have advised them to err on the side of caution.Proving copyright abandonment is tricky: you have to show evidence of an intentional act (Hampton v. Paramount, 1960).  In the hypothetical, the attorney would have to show that WotC's selective enforcement was deliberate; that they did not and never intended to enforce their rights against equally or more egregiously offending parties.  IOW, WotC had singled out their client.A tough burden of proof, to be sure, but not impossible...especially if actually true.</blockquote>