Derek wrote:

On 16 Nov 2003, Derek posted the following to rec.food.drink.tea:


Actually, anything posted to this group is copyright of the
original poster - providing said poster either created the post
or had the right to post it.


A clarification (I hit send a bit too quickly).

Also, issues of prior art would apply. Something posted with the
belief that it was an original idea does not necessarily mean that it
is such and therefore copyrighted.

But it is not the idea that is copyrightable; rather, the expression is
subject to copyright, so as long as those words have never been used in
that order in that forum, copyright applies.

dmh