At 08:35 PM 6/11/99 PDT, Charlotte ~ wrote: >There is no state copyright laws...all federal ...preempted by the federal >government in the US... See the following http://www.state.mi.us/execoff/admincode/depart/state.htm Copyright Law: The form, classification, arrangement and numbering of these administrative rules are protected under copyright of the Legislative Council, State of Michigan. Any unathorized reproduction, sale, or other commercial use is hereby prohibited. http://www.marklitwak.com/rdmap3a.htm Federal copyright law applies in all the states. Today, state copyright law is largely preempted by the federal law, although state law may provide a remedy in those areas that the federal law does not preempt. For instance, state law could protect works that are ineligible for federal protection because the works are not in a fixed tangible medium of expression. http://www.xenu.net/archive/CourtFiles/occf56.html The District Court, Huff, J., held that: (1) instructor violated federal copyright laws by copying or directing her students to copy organizations' literary works and sound recordings for use in course instructor offered for sale; (2) instructor violated state copyright law with respect to recordings fixed prior to 1972; (3) information contained in organizations' materials was "trade secret" which instructor misappropriated; (4) statutes of limitations did not bar claims; (5) First Amendment did not bar claims; and (6) instructor's use was not "fair use." http://lw.bna.com/lw/19990309/2862.htm Section 301 of the current Copyright Act, enacted in 1976, ("the Act") expressly provides for preemption of state copyright law and provides that all state-created rights, including statutory or common law rights, that are "equivalent" to any of the rights specified by the Act "are governed exclusively by this title." The Act limits express preemption to matters provided for by sections 102 (original works protected by copyright), 103 (compilations and derivative works) and 106 (exclusive rights in copyrighted works). 17 U.S.C. §301. There is no blanket express preemption of state property laws under §301; the federal scheme simply is not so all-pervasive that there is no room for state activity in this area. http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byauth/oakley/notes.html Presumably, this means that if there were a work that were not fixed, it could still be the subject of state copyright law. As examples, Nimmer suggests that states might still protect choreography that has not been filmed or recorded, an extemporaneous speech, live broadcasts, and other works developed from memory and without being written down or otherwise recorded. Of course, in these circumstances there is a difficult problem of proof of ownership of the work or its infringement. Additionally, it is not yet clear whether the states will protect such works. See generally Nimmer on Copyright, Sec. 2.02 (Bender, 1988). The above came from an internet search on the phrase "state copyright law," as did the following: http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~akdclass/pct/outline.txt http://www.liberty.edu/itrc/policies.html http://www.krusch.com/real/copyright.html Mike Goad (I am not a lawyer and opinions in my posts and web-site only express should not be constued as legal advice) http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikegoad/copyright1.htm