The Faceless Master
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/...plies-to-lawful-copies-of-a-copyrighted-work/The US Supreme Court sided Tuesday with a former Thai student who made $90,000 reselling text books bought abroad and sparked a copyright row with a publisher.
Supap Kirtsaeng, who arrived in the United States in 1997 to study math at the University of Southern California on a scholarship, had asked his friends and family to buy the books, published by John Wiley & Sons, which were cheaper back home.
After receiving them in the mail, he resold hundreds in the United States on eBay, reimbursing his suppliers and pocketing the profit, estimated at $90,000.
John Wiley & Sons filed a complaint in 2008 alleging illegal importation and resale without the payment of exclusive distribution rights protected by copyright.
The 6-3 opinion was authored by Justice Steven Breyer, perhaps the justice most skeptical of intellectual property rights. The dissent was authored by Justice Ruth Ginsburg, who has long favored powerful copyright privileges. Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy also joined the dissent.
...
If the publishers' argument had been accepted, some of the results would have been dramatic. The first sale doctrine would basically stop existing for goods made outside the US, which would actually give corporations a strong incentive to move manufacturing abroad—surely not a result that Congress intended.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/thai-student-protected-by-first-sale-supreme-court-rules/
glad they got this one right.