These cases together signaled a very strong and sensible policy: The complex balance of interests within any copyright statute are best struck by Congress.

Although the copyright statute does not protect ideas, how a writer develops the idea can be copyrighted.

The act came into force in 1710 and was the first copyright statute.

Move from common law and ad-hoc grants of monopoly to copyright statutes.

America's first copyright statute, passed in 1790, granted copyrights for 14 years.

(2) Compilations were protected as books under the first federal copyright statute.

The preemption is complete insofar as works fall within the federal copyright statute.

The court held first that the copyright statutes protect an owner's right to "multiply and sell" the work on their own terms.

A first copyright statute dated back to 1828, and in 1857, a general copyright term of fifty years was instituted.

In 1924, the Council of People's Commissars launched a project to develop a new copyright statute.