Any writer, before bemoaning the "over-extension" of copyright, should be forced to actually read the law, especially section 102(b):

In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

Many of the issues that critics breathlessly discover have been the subject of debate and refinement for 200 years. They may be difficult, but as someone (I think it was Richard Epstein) said, the fact that grey exists does not mean that there is no black or white.