"Suppose I'm working in a theatre working with real lights. I light a scene with 20 spots, should I be able to copyright the arrangement and sue a rival theatre if they come up with something similar?" Actually, yes you can...IF you have taken the time to document your light placements, gel usage, intensity ranges, angle settings, and so forth. The precise settings of those 20 spots, as documented by you, are your intellectual property, and that documentation can be copyrighted. Now, will it be worth it for you to try and get out your measuring tools and climb up into the beams in order to verify that they're using your light arrangement? Not likely, and in fact without a court order you're likely to get arrested. Would you get anything out of it if you brought an infringement suit against the theatre? Yah, one (1) headache and one (1) large lawyer bill. As with anything else, there are extremes. Blackhearted's work is not one of them. As his light set plainly and simply is a set of text documents (regardless of the end result), he holds the copyright on those documents, and is entitled to all the benefits thereof. Would he get anything out of a suit against Bebop? Sure would...one (1) headache and one (1) large lawyer bill. :) <---Note the smiley ChromeTiger