Register of Copyrights and director of the US Copyright Office Shira Perlmutter formally responded to US Senate ranking member on the subcommittee on intellectual property Thom Tillis’s request for an analysis of Maryland’s recently-enacted law regulating library lending of ebooks and similar efforts pending on other states. Tillis was clearly looking for confirmation of his inference “that these state legislative efforts would appear to directly conflict with the Copyright Act’s clear language” and “preemption rules that situate copyright law exclusively at the federal level.” Perlmutter concurs, noting, “We conclude that under current precedent, the state laws at issue are likely […]