[idlewan]

> If no negotiations were needed, then anyone could have picked up and done a low-budget adaptation and called it a day.

And? Anyone can do a low-budget adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and call it a day.

Copyright is supposed to incentivize authors to create more work (by having a return on 'investment'/time put in). Not to restrict those who can create 'work inspired by others' to the uber-rich.