Supreme Court considering elimination of First Sale Doctorine!

[Redrob]

Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s busy 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.

Link to Article.

This case will massively hit video stores, game stores, used book stores and eBay.

Apparently, depending on how the Supremes rule, stuff made overseas may be illegal to sell without manufacturer's permission. The movie studios fought the First Sale Doctorine back in the 1980's when home video stores first opened and have always wanted to see the doctrine eliminated in the USA as well.

This case is worth watching.

No Fear, Just Knowledge.

[DWB]

Is it just me, or are things moving backwards in the US these days?

[Barry-xlovecam]

A design can be copyright -- a automobile, furniture, anything really but why pay twice for the same thing? Apply this same logic to intellectual property the item cannot be resold over and over (copies made for sale ) but the original item paid for can be resold, i.e.; a used CD. However, why should the resale be prohibited only for foreign goods?

If a USA business sells a product for $0.39 in a foreign market and $0.99 in the USA -- why can that product not be imported and sold at a discount here? The seller wants his rip-off marketing protected domestically by his subsidy of higher USA sale prices?

Outsourcing or international trade is a two edged sword -- crocodile tears ...

[Relentless]

It's a legislative issue not a judicial one. The law on the matter is settled and has been for a century.
Congress can create legislation any time it wants.
The simplest solution is limiting the number of copies of something someone can resell as 'noncommercial' use.
If you resell your one iPhone 4 that seems very different than a store important them and selling them below local market value for a few Milion dollars a year.

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by Redrob

Link to Article.

This case will massively hit video stores, game stores, used book stores and eBay.

No it won't. The vast majority of the products sold by those stores are American manufactured and fall under the First Sale Doctrine.

The facts of this case are very narrow, this kid did over 1 million dollar in sales selling a product that was expressly meant only to be sold to the Thai market to US students. That's why the publisher sued him and won.

I don't see how the decision massively hits anybody but somebody like this kid who tap danced around the law. The Chicken Littles in that article are wringing their hands about nothing. European and Asian manufacturers and exporters sell their products to American retailers and importers knowing they are going to be re-sold. The value of those products drops big time if they weren't allowed to be re-sold.

How can the Supreme Court even overturn the ruling - it's a 100 years old law regarding American manufactured products. How can they suddenly expand it to cover non-American products? That's not their job.

I must be missing something because the Supreme Court accepted the case and it doesn't accept many.

[Relentless]

You would also have it become a selling point for some manufacturers over others.

'Once you buy our cellphone you own it and can do whatever you want with it... Unlike our evil competitor's limited license terms'

[tony286]

The more its downloaded its like borrowed than owned. I have books on my Kindle i can't sell them after I'm done reading it. I bought a season of true blood, it sits on the Amazon cloud now collecting digital dust.
I personally don't think the kid did anything wrong.

[halfpint]

Originally Posted by tony286

The more its downloaded its like borrowed than owned. I have books on my Kindle i can't sell them after I'm done reading it. I bought a season of true blood, it sits on the Amazon cloud now collecting digital dust.
I personally don't think the kid did anything wrong.

How can you say that he does not have a right to sell it on. This is like me buying content without resell rights and then selling it on to make money from it

If you have resell rights well then thats a diff story. Dont think adult content producers would like it if thier purchased content was resold by webmasters who had no rights to resell it.

[AdultPornMasta]

Originally Posted by Redrob

Link to Article.

This case will massively hit video stores, game stores, used book stores and eBay.

Apparently, depending on how the Supremes rule, stuff made overseas may be illegal to sell without manufacturer's permission. The movie studios fought the First Sale Doctorine back in the 1980's when home video stores first opened and have always wanted to see the doctrine eliminated in the USA as well.

This case is worth watching.

No Fear, Just Knowledge.

That should be "DOCTRINE", not "DOCTORINE" but at any rate, I'd like to see the Federalies try to police all the rummage sales, garage sales (Jumbles to you in the UK) across the nation. Not to mention Craigslist and all the freebie ad sites out there.

Not enforceable in any real meaningful way and there would be such an outcry and blowup of civil disobedience that the government would look like the fool that it is.

Can you imagine Soccer Moms being arrested for selling second-hand CDs or games out of a driveway?

That shit won't go far.........................................

[directfiesta]

Originally Posted by DWB

Is it just me, or are things moving backwards in the US these days?

It's called " conservatism " ...