At the end of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," Captain Jack Sparrow made it pretty clear where he was headed next: in search of the fabled Fountain of Youth. Well, at Disney's recent D23 convention, they announced the fourth installment would be titled "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides"--incidentally enough, the subtitle is the name of a Tim Powers novel also about the Fountain of Youth. So, as one might expect, Disney and Depp fans alike bombarded Powers with fan mail inquiring about his work. The only problem is nobody at Disney took the time to tell Powers about the new name. So is this a case of one IP being morphed into another, or does Powers have grounds to sue for infringement? Find out after the jump.

Powers told the Los Angeles Times Monday that he had, in fact, sold the rights to his book to Disney...two and a half years ago. Apparently, Disney told powers to keep tight-lipped about the acquisition. What they didn't tell Powers was that his book, with a little tweaking, would become the basis for Captain Sparrow's next adventure; specifically that his book published 21 years ago is supplying the plot for a film being released in summer 2011.

So how does Powers feel, pissed or pleased? As it turns out, pleased. "I think it's great," he told the Times. Though details of exactly how much of the plot is being adapted are scant, it looks like we may be looking forward to new characters to the franchise in the forms of an Oxford professor, his daughter, and perhaps even the legendary Blackbeard himself. Expect more details as they unfold.