Well actually there are things you can do, willing you want to invest the time and legalaties of the system. One is that all works the second they are created are copyrighted, registered or not, anyone who tells you otherwise has no clue what they are talking about, true registration offers more power but that deals mostly with distrubution. First you would need to know the mud's name, its web url, the company hosting the mud and the company hosting the website. Politely request the owner of the mud to discontinue use of your work (i.e. the code which would fall under literary work as most computer programs do, muds have been known to fall under pictorial also), if they refuse to discontinue use then contact the owner of the server and webhosting service. Tell them the situation, send them a copy of the email refusing to stop use, and tell them of your intent to pursue legal action against the mud developer and its affiliates, now the companies that host are not direct affiliates but they do not want to become entangled in a large legal battle where their information will be subpoenad and who knows what a company could be hiding. Whether you pursue a legal case or not (which I wouldn't its not worth it) this will more times than not, cause some type of action, normally in your favor. For more information on what you can and can't do with intellectual work please visit
This also applies to literary works and works of film, that's why there is always a copyright issue in the mud world, at some point fan fiction just turns into theft of ones work. If you create a mud, use your own imagination, your own creative spark, not a book or you're favorite show, incorporate some of those ideas but don't base your game around it, it could always bite you in the end.
That will hopefully get the ball rolling and hopefully help you get things settled.
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