"Inspired" and "knock-off" characters... Am I wrong, here?

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for your comments and input on this matter.

After reading through everything, and having a good night's sleep on the matter, I've come to my own conclusions.

I think the bottom line here -- whether I'm in violation of the EULA or not -- I should not be the subject to any form of harassment in this game for any reason. Period. It's not my job as a player to police the game world. If I see something that offends or bothers me, I petition it, and let the GM's handle it. If the real game police say it's fine, then that should be the end of the matter.

Now, on the subject of whether I'm in violation or not -- or if I'm infringing on copyrights or trademarks... First, no, I'm not going to put up screen shots, give out the bio, or name, for the purpose of this discussion. And it's not because I have anything to hide (if the higher-ups want to investigate it, that's completely out of my control). It's because I want the mere concept to be as objectionable as possible; which is why I've refrained from using names.

The name is of my own design, the bio is of my own design (and intricately weaved with several of my other characters, and characters within the CoX universe), and the character is not being portrayed as the inspirational subject. As in, I did not pluck the trademarked character from his origin and decided to play as him in CoX. Again, with the looks, the most defining aspect is probably the hair -- and I love the hair, so I don't wish to change it. There were several other options in the character creator I could use to make him look pretty spot on, but that didn't appeal to me. I'm not using an exact likeness, and stealing that particular character as my own.

And while I realize that this is a very gray issue, and I also realize that owners of intellectual properties have an obligation to protect their assets -- and very rightfully so; they cannot lay claim to powers, general clothing, and hair styles. If that were the case, then NCSoft wouldn't be able to legally include practically any of the power sets we currently get to enjoy. And the costuming options would be cut down dramatically.

On the subject of there not being any new ideas anymore, well, I kind of agree, and kind of disagree. Statistically, there are very few truly unique ideas in the sense of never having been explored before. But ideas are constantly being evolved and rethought -- and are flavored differently depending on who's cultivating them.

However, there's a whole other concept of creating an idea so popular, and so large, the fans start to take a conceptual ownership in the property. And thus, you have things like parodies and fan-fiction that populate the Internets and magazines. On the absolute literal level, these are never "legal". But if these companies start to take a completely totalitarian approach to their property, they begin to alienate their fan base.

It's an interesting dichotomy that I consider to be a poetic conflict of interest. On one hand, you have a corporation who physically owns characters and places. Their need to protect their assets is set on a purely business perspective; their characters make them money, and no one is allowed to make money from said characters without the owners getting a piece (or all) of the pie.

And then you have the fans who simply don't see the concept of the business models, and only fall in love with the characters, stories, and universe as a whole. Though they have no monetary investment, they do invest their devotion and emotions into the same characters that the corporations own. Mostly, fans want to interact with these characters based on the fundamental of love, rather than the drive to profit off of them. But the corporations, legally, can only see things in black and white, lest they risk absolving the complete ownership of their assets. It's a mutual love-hate.

Not to mention the idea of one iconic character and archetype inspiring generations of "knock offs". It doesn't take a rocket scientist to spot DC and Marvel counterparts.

I think ultimately, as more of these games are put on the market, it's a subject that's never going to really go away. That's not really an excuse to "knock off" characters and intentionally use them, but I think there's a difference between knocking something off, and being inspired by something and someone whom you admire.

Yeah, I think I'm going to keep playing my guy for as long as I find entertainment in the experience -- along with my other characters. And in further interacting with other players, if they actively voice in opposition to my character, I'll politely ask them to keep it to themselves. If it escalates, I'll thank them for their passion, put them on ignore, and move on with my virtual life. I'm not spending $15 a month on drama that can easily be avoided. Heh.

Once again, thank you all for the comments. I feel a lot better just getting all my thoughts out.