I got this link in an email from a friend. I didn't read much beyond the abstract, but those of you with an interest in this material may find this a compelling read. It's by a student at Yale Law, regarding the mechanisms that magic creaters use to protect intellectual property when the law is not helpful in doing so. A central concept in the paper is "negative space" in intellectual property.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1005564

I apologize if this has been recently posted/discussed.

Hahaha! Bravo! thanks for the link. It said everything I've ever said; albeit, in a toned down scholarly way

I've already informed the author of that paper that some of his discussion is similar to something which saw print in a Magic Magazine article in 2004 AND the authors are now in contact with eachother.

The author of that article is a magician and may even join us here at some point.