Will Possible Supreme Court Decision Kill Used Book Stores?

[urbanlibertarian]

From reason.com:

http://reason.com/archives/2012/11/28/will-the-supreme-court-kill-used-booksto

The ruling in Kirtsaeng v. Wiley & Sons just may do that.
Christopher Balogh | November 28, 2012

On October 29, the Supreme Court heard the arguments of a copyright case involving the right to resell imported goods in the United States. The goods in question were college textbooks but the outcome could affect whether copyrighted goods made overseas can be resold in the U.S. without consent from the copyright holder. Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. may focus on the five-pound appendages lugged around by undergraduates, but any product made overseas with a U.S. copyrightâ€"from shoes to laptopsâ€"could be affected. That makes Kirtsaeng potentially one of the most important decisions the Court will make this season.

Here’s the back story: Supap Kirtsaeng traveled to the U.S. from Thailand to attend Cornell and to earn a doctorate in math from University of Southern California. Along the way, Kirtsaeng set up his own business of sorts through eBay and sold $900,000 worth of books printed abroad by Wiley & Sons. He used the profits, among other things, to pay for his education.

In 2009, Wiley won a copyright infringement lawsuit against Kirtsaeng in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). Kirtsaeng then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York. The 2nd Circuit sided with SDNY. Kirtsaeng was ordered  to pay $600,000 for infringing a textbook publisher’s copyrights when he resold eight textbooks that had been printed by the Asian subsidiary of the U.S.-based Wiley & Sons. Each international edition ended up costing Kirtsaeng $75,000 per book.

Kirtsaeng appealed the decision, claiming that Wiley lost its right to control sales of the book when his friends and family legally bought them in Thailand. This is known as the “first sale doctrine,” which holds that the publisher of a book only gets to control the original purchase of a book. After that, whoever bought the book can resell the book. The first sales doctrine is what makes used bookstores (and used record stores, along with many other retail shops) possible.

There are two relevant provisions of copyright law that are at handâ€"and in apparent conflict. The first, 17 USC § 109(a), states that “the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this title, or any person authorized by such owner, is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy or phonorecord.” But another provision, 17 USC § 602(a)(1), states that the “importation into the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright under this title, of copies or phonorecords of a work that have been acquired outside the United States is an infringement of the exclusive right to distribute copies or phonorecords under section 106, actionable under section 501.”

The two provisions create a precarious situation and raise the question now before the Court: Does the first sale doctrine apply when applying to imported books? The difficulties in answering that question raise another, which has never quite been settled once and for all: Do U.S. copyright laws actually cover products made outside the U.S.?

Entire article here: http://reason.com/archives/2012/11/28/will-the-supreme-court-kill-used-booksto

[acme54321]

How will this kill used book stores? 

[funwithteeth]

It's not that much of stretch to go from needing permission from the UK copyright-holder to needing permission from the US copyright-holder. I can't imagine this ever gaining traction, though. Remember how some artists/record labels raised a stink over used record stores? Remember how that went nowhere? There's lots of things used bookstore owners have to worry about threatening their business, but the possibility of this happening will never be among them.

[ChriswUfGator]

This won't happen, it goes against a century of US copyright law. Buying a book is not the same thing as buying an end-user software license, when you buy a tangible copy of something, you're entitled to do with it what you wish in this country, except for copying it and selling the copies. This is much ado about nothing.