Some folks are talented enough at copying to make a copy from scratch that is virtually indistinguishable from the original, copyrighted work.
Those would be copies.
If you authored a cartoon character, The_Reader_Davidbert, and used this trdbert in a comic strip that was wildly popular, then nationally syndicated in newspapers, and you authored numerous books which included the character and funny stories about his escapades in, oh, say internet forums, you might be financially successful at the endeavor.
Let’s say you did this, and wound up making man millions per year from your little trdbert empire.
Now, I come along, weasely little lazy guy that I am, and I - from scratch, mind you - author an exact copy of your trdbert cartoon character. I did this from scratch, but the images are so much the same that no one can tell them apart, your trdbert character and my, oh, I name him trdbertx, character.
I start publishing books, I take it to the web. I make some animated movies about trdbertx, where the script has trdbertx trashing trdbert, mocking, ridiculing. I get trdbertx into social media, spreading lies and disinformation about trdbert. I get some venture capital backing, and launch massive PR campaigns. My social media consultants start conspiracy theories that trdbertx was actually first, and trdbert is the ripoff.
Your trdbert empire starts to crumble. Most newspapers drop trdbert to pick up trdbertx. trdbertx’s sarcasm is so funny, even when you try to have trdbert cartoons mock trdbertx, no one really finds it appealing. It’s too little, too late. No more new book deals for trdbert.
trdbert sales plummet.
Out of desperation, you hire Archie Bunker’s lawyers, and take the matter all the way to the Supreme Court, losing at every turn.
The Supreme Court decision finally comes: trdbertx was created from scratch, so it is not infringing on the trdbert copyright.
The End.
[orchestra plays, lots of swooning violins, as my character sails off on his yacht to the Cayman Islands with his trophy wife]
[Harlot DontCara (my wife)]: We’ll never be hungry again...
[Klept Butler, my character (smoking a nice Havana), played by Clark Gable]: Frankly my dear...
If it is not me as the original artist/author, but a rightsholding corporation, or one of my ne’er-do-well descendants, even if he has taken up continuing the comic strip after my repose and gets beaten out by your artistically-superior reworking of my idea now in the public domain, my shade will play the world’s smallest violin as part of your swooning violins in mock-sympathy for the folks wanting continued monopoly rents on my ideas.
For that matter, if I’ve had them on the market for 28 years and can’t keep the loyalty of fans against a knock-off, I probably don’t deserve any more money for the idea.