Another thought occured to me: when does making an allusion become stealing another person's ideas or plagarizing? Is it based on how big a part the snippet is in the new text or how important a role it plays or what? Is something like Prufrock/Waste Land or even Wayne's World with its Scooby Doo, Laverne & Shirley allusions infringement if no permission was sought? What about when Pre-Raphaelites allude to Renaissance painters, who in turn allude to Greek-Roman classical referents. This seems to get into the whole simulations (a la Baudril- lard) business. -Sterling