Just reading this thread and, wow, does anyone even moderate this forum anymore?
I'm not sure how exactly this veered off in to God and gay marriage or what that has to do with puppetry, but I will say that when this debate inevitably rears its ugly head it makes me think it should just be a banned topic. Not to suppress anyone's point of view, but because I think both sides of this issue have said just about everything that could possibly be said about it.
What seems to usually happen here when when people argue about this is that nobody is speaking the same language. The anti-replica folks argue what the law is and the pro-replica folks argue what they think the law should be, or that they disagree with it. The two are like apples and oranges.
Selling replica puppets (or almost anything else really) based on someone's intellectual property violates copyright laws. Saying that isn't being judgmental or having an opinion, it's stating a true and verifiable fact. Anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves.
At the same time, obviously a lot of people don't care or feel they're entitled to sell replicas "at cost" or because there's no way for fans to buy a replica Muppet. The ethics of that can be debated, but maybe the tone of the debate would be a little better if the anti-replica folks were a little less judgmental and the pro-replica folks could be honest and acknowledge the reality that you're not supposed to sell work based on someone's copyright, even if you are a fan?
Personally, I liked what Jamie (frogboy) had to say about being torn between wanting to own a Scooter puppet and at the same time acknowledging that if it was his intellectual property being used/profited from he'd probably be upset. If I had to guess, I'd say that's probably representative of how most people feel.