Andrew, the US Copyright Office disagrees with you. Maybe those people you talked with didn't pass the bar.
Ref: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html#what_protect
We're not claiming they copied stuff from this site. THAT would be a copyright infringement.
Don't quote me the page, son. You obviously have no idea about the differences between theory and practice. The website makes things look clearcut, but the reality is not quite so clear cut.
A copyright protects a WORK. Period. In whatever media the work appears in. This can be both tangible and intangible works.
If my idea is "I am going to invent something to let people fly!" then I do not have a copyright on it.
If my idea is "I am going to use molecular technology and amplificiation of dark matter to create a propulsion system that will allow humans to fly" then likely this will stand up as a copyright LONG before I put it on paper.
THe difference is how specific your idea is and how far along it is to being a finished work.
If we said "Lets start a website full of Vanessa fans called Nessaholics.com!" and someone else took that and used on a VC mailing list before we created the site, we would have no copyright.
If we create a website and call it nessaholics.com and it is specifically used to promote vanessa carlton in electronic media and someone else shows up and creates a VC mailing list and calls it nessaholics, then we are protected under copyright.
Do some research on electronic media law (which is now 2-3 classes in most law programs) and then come talk to me again.
Edit: What you are proposing is a very simplistic view of what a copyright protects. Which would be just word for word reproduction. Think about how copyright laws protect artists from covering another artists work without permission........
