"state copyright" -- history question

   I've recently been confronted by someone claiming that the rise of federal copyright law preemption of state/common law copyright is motivated by big business (Sony and the like).

   In my reading I haven't seen much (any that I recall, actually) mention of state copyright law (which I would assume would have to be prior to the statutory preemption clause at least). Does anyone know of any useful reference materials in this regard? I had thought that state copyright laws would be constitutionally preempted, even without the specific statutory language currently used. Certainly the notion of fair use (which this fellow regards as a horrendous affront to his "natural" right to control his work) has been around for a long long time in the common law -- did state laws repudiate this notion? Did the federal courts uphold such laws?

Thanks,
Lynn

Lynn Winebarger
<owinebar[_at_]free-expression.org> Received on Tue May 02 2000 - 11:05:43 GMT