U.S. Supreme Court Holds Copyright Not Infringed.

An academic textbook publisher, who often assigns rights to publish its English language textbooks abroad, states in those books that they are not to be taken into the United States without permission. A Thai student moved to the United States to study mathematics. He asked friends and family to purchase copies of textbooks in Thailand, where they are sold for much less, and mail them to him in the U.S., where he sold them for a profit. The distributor filed suit against the student, claiming the student violated its exclusive distribution rights. The student contended he legitimately purchased the textbooks, thus the “first sale” rule permitted him to resell them without interfering with the distributor’s rights. A jury found against the student and awarded damages.  A federal appeals court affirmed, finding the “first sale” rule does not apply to American copyrighted works manufactured abroad. Section 109(a) of the Copyright Act sets forth the “first sale” rule: “. . .the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this rule . . .is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy or phonorecord.” (Emphasis added.) In copyright jargon, the “first sale” rule has exhausted the copyright owner’s exclusive distribution right. The United States Supreme Court gave the rule a nongeographical meaning, and held the “first sale” doctrine applies to copies of a copyrighted work lawfully purchased abroad. Thus, the owner of a copyrighted work, no matter where it was legitimately purchased, may dispose of it as he or she wishes. Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  (U.S. Sup. Ct.; March 19, 2013) 133 S.Ct. 1351, [185 L.Ed.2d 392].