Doctrine of 1st Sale ..........

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EmptyTimCup

Guest
Your right to resell your own stuff is in peril
It could become illegal to resell your iPhone 4, car or family antiques

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother’s antique furniture to your iPhone 4.

At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products.

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The case stems from Supap Kirtsaeng’s college experience. A native of Thailand, Kirtsaeng came to America in 1997 to study at Cornell University. When he discovered that his textbooks, produced by Wiley, were substantially cheaper to buy in Thailand than they were in Ithaca, N.Y., he rallied his Thai relatives to buy the books and ship them to him in the United States.

While American men's brands once prized European craftsmanship or appreciated low-cost production from the Far East, some of the best fashion now is made right here in the U.S. Martin Marks talks menswear. (Photo: AP)

He then sold them on eBay, making upward of $1.2 million, according to court documents.

Wiley, which admitted that it charged less for books sold abroad than it did in the United States, sued him for copyright infringement. Kirtsaeng countered with the first-sale doctrine.
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the 1st judge should have tossed the case, Supap Kirtsaeng was not making his own copies and selling them, he purchased or had relatives purchase abroad Wiley books ...... if anything he was not paying import duties and owes uncle sugar, back taxes


seems like good capitalism to me, buy low... sell high

screw the publisher, College text books are a rip off and cash cow for already expensive universities

they don't like it, someone find found way to do it cheaper


the end result, I expect, will be a closer watch on packages from overseas ...
 
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EmptyTimCup

Guest
Supreme Court Will Hear Case Over Foreign Textbooks Imported and Resold in U.S.

Wiley sued him for copyright infringement, but Mr. Kirtsaeng invoked the first-sale doctrine in his defense. In August 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling that the first-sale principle applied only to U.S.-made works. The high court will hear arguments in the case this fall, with a ruling expected by June 2013.

"The Second Circuit correctly concluded that those seeking to profit from the creative works of others cannot evade our intellectual-property laws by importing copies from overseas," said Susan Spilka, vice president for corporate communications at Wiley. "We look forward to defending that decision in the Supreme Court."

Nancy Sims, the program copyright librarian at the University of Minnesota, underscored the potential importance of the case for American libraries, which hold many works printed abroad. "The most obvious implication for libraries is we loan things under first-sale," Ms. Sims said. "Can we not now lend imported books in our collections?"

The case has the potential to affect many categories of copyrighted work. In a blog post on Monday, the advocacy group Public Knowledge wrote: "This ruling could cripple markets for used books, movies, CD's, toys, and any other goods that contain copyrighted works. For example, many cars contain copyrighted computer programs, so used-car sales for foreign-manufactured would become illegal (without the copyright owner's permission)."
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how can a publisher claim infringement when the book is being purchased overseas [ one would assume, from a retailer - since there is no claim this guys family was running a print shop] from a legitimate store or retailer


the issue is, Wiley does not like to be under cut with there own product cheaper for their over priced, closed market products
 
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EmptyTimCup

Guest
Lenders in the Courthouse


In 2008, Wiley, one of the world’s largest textbook publishers, sued Supap Kirtsaeng, a graduate student at the University of Southern California, for coordinating with friends and family in Thailand on a lucrative ploy to sell low-quality editions of Wiley textbooks manufactured by the company’s Asia division to customers in the United States, where Wiley was selling prettier, sturdier editions of the same textbooks for substantially higher prices. A district court found Kirtsaeng guilty of copyright infringement and ordered him to pay $600,000 in damages to Wiley. An appellate court upheld the decision. In April the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, which it will decide sometime within the year.
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:whistle:
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
Yep, show the text book industry for what it is, a price fixing game. Same thing with the stupid "special editions" that have nothing for extra content, whose only purpose is to make you use the campus bookstore.
 
Bavarian

Bavarian

New Member
glhs837 said:
Yep, show the text book industry for what it is, a price fixing game. Same thing with the stupid "special editions" that have nothing for extra content, whose only purpose is to make you use the campus bookstore.
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Not only them, but college tutition is higher than is neccessary. With these new low cost student loans, colleges, book publishers, etc. can just hike their prices knowing that the poor students will pay.

Let the politicians go after "Big-Education" like they do "big Oil and Big Pharma"
 
Tilted

Tilted

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The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mr. Kirtsaeng in this case today. Here is the opinion. It was a 6-3 decision with Justices Scalia, Kennedy, and Ginsburg dissenting.

From the majority opinion:

Putting section numbers to the side, we ask whether the “first sale” doctrine applies to protect a buyer or other lawful owner of a copy (of a copyrighted work) lawfully manufactured abroad. Can that buyer bring that copy into the United States (and sell it or give it away) without obtaining permission to do so from the copyright owner? Can, for example, someone who purchases, say at a used bookstore, a book printed abroad subsequently resell it without the copyright owner’s permission?

In our view, the answers to these questions are, yes. We hold that the “first sale” doctrine applies to copies of a copyrighted work lawfully made abroad.
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czygvtwkr

Guest
The Asians I went to school with would buy the books from the bookstore, spend hours at Kinko's copying them and then return them to the bookstore for a full refund.
 
itsbob

itsbob

I bowl overhand
czygvtwkr said:
The Asians I went to school with would buy the books from the bookstore, spend hours at Kinko's copying them and then return them to the bookstore for a full refund.
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Stupid.. I just bought the Thai versions from half.com IF I bought a book at all.
 
itsbob

itsbob

I bowl overhand
czygvtwkr said:
This was in the 90's before internet commerce was common place.
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Then it was commonplace to be in a student "club" and share textbooks..

Hell, some were known to keep hard files in a cabinet with every classes homework assignments, copies of past quizzes, and past tests..

You go to college because you're supposed to be smart. Some are just smarter than others.
 
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