Re: SFLC is SOL

[Hyman Rosen]

On 3/16/2010 6:58 AM, Alexander Terekhov wrote:
> Hyman Rosen wrote:
> > federal preemption of state
> > copyright enforcement has nothing to do with the GPL.
> It's about
> http://escholarship.org/uc/item/31t5x09h
> (eScholarship: Copyright Preemption of Contracts)

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/31t5x09h
    Courts now routinely reject the position that shrinkwrap
    and other licenses should be held invalid as a matter of
    contract law.

    Copyright scholars next turned to preemption doctrine,
    arguing that the Copyright Act should preempt contractual
    licenses that alter the Act's "delicate balance" of rights
    between owners and users. Here, too, courts have been
    unreceptive. ... Preemption analysis focuses on conflicts
    between federal law and state-imposed obligations, whereas
    contracts reflect private ordering. Moreover, the Copyright
    Act expressly allows contracts for certain purposes. Indeed,
    the efficacy of the Act as a whole depends on the ability of
    copyright owners to contract with others to make the most of
    their copyrights.

As usual, the sources you cite contradict your thesis.
Preemption is entirely irrelevant to the GPL.