The Copyright Act preempts the GPL

[daniel wallace]

Perhaps these comments from the annointed version of
the Copright Act will clarify things:                 
                                                               
                HISTORICAL AND REVISION NOTES
                   HOUSE REPORT NO. 94-1476
Section 103 complements section 102: A compilation or derivative
work is copyrightable if it represents an ''original work of
authorship'' and falls within one or more of the categories listed
in section 102. Read together, the two sections make plain that the
criteria of copyrightable subject matter stated in section 102
apply with full force to works that are entirely original and to
those containing preexisting material.  Section 103(b) is also
intended to define, more sharply and clearly than does section 7 of
the present law (section 7 of former title 17), the important
interrelationship and correlation between protection of preexisting
and of ''new'' material in a particular work. The most important
point here is one that is commonly misunderstood today: copyright in
a ''new version'' covers only the material added by the later author,
and has no effect one way or the other on the copyright or public
domain status of the preexisting material.
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