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You misunderstand. Anybody can go and pick berries off a tree, crush them down and get a coloured paste they can use to make pictures and colour skin or fabric. Not everybody does so. Similarly, anybody can come up with an idea. Not everyone sets out that idea in an artistic, salable way which takes time and effort for which they should be compensated within the life of a fair term of copyright. For instance, 'boy finds out he has magical powers' is an idea and cannot be copyighted. 'Harry Potter' is a work of artistic expression based on this idea, and its rights-holder and her heirs will profit from it until it eventually it returns to the public domain. 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss is another best-seller based on this same idea. 'Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell' by Susanna Clarke is based on this same idea. 'The Dresden Files' by Jim Butcher is based on this same idea. 'The Magicians' by Lev Grossman is based on this same idea. And so on. All are very different treatments of this idea---Moodie's is historical fiction, for instance---which shows us that just having the idea is not at all the same as actually implementing it.
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