one of the steps involved in getting a copyright (or patent for that matter) is getting a search done by experts..you'd be surprised how many things have been invented over and over..;)
btw..someone actually set up a bunch of monkeys with typewriters as an experiment, and let them at it..no Shakespeare..it turns out that monkeys, like humans, are not really sufficiently 'random' to get the 'combination'right (saw it in the paper sometime last year..I'm not making this up..;)
heck, I see 'ideas' stolen all the time; I've had some of my picture ideas redone after I did them (now if I could stop them from doing them so much better than mine..;) but when you throw money into it..that's over the line..

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)