AOL Time Warner's legal rottweilers are
aggressively prosecuting Harry Potter-inspired books, from unauthorised fiction using the characters to thematically similar work like
Tanya Grotter and the Magic Double-Bass. They have been allowed to do this by recent expansions of intellectual property treaties, which crack down on derived works.
Or, another way to think about it: had the treaties been in place decades ago, J.R.R. Tolkien (or his publishers) would have been able to sue the entire fantasy fiction genre out of existence. A side-effect of the neo-
Galambosian intellectual-property power-grab by the copyright industry could well be the end of new genres as such, and their replacement by licensed franchises (like the various Matrix tie-ins).
This spells the end for Weird Al Yankovic!