A discussion on the other board about whether or not CF character descriptions constitute "Intellectual Property" and are subject to IP law has gotten me thinking.

Who owns the rights to CF character likenesses, by which I guess I mean descriptions and roles? My assumption would be that it's either the person who wrote them or whatever sort of corporation protects CF.

I'm not actively "concerned" about this, more just curious.

If there's no ownership defined, anyone sufficiently motivated could populate dozens of fantasy novels, games, etc. with totally fleshed-out, awesome characters, just by browsing the PBFs. Now that I think about it, I don't think I'd be opposed to that.

Wait. Maybe I would be opposed to it if one of my characters were introduced as a Jar-Jar Binks type in Stevers S. Steverson's bestselling series "Fields of Carrion."