How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from reselling just about anything

[The Computer Audiophile]

Really interesting article from one of my favorite sites Ars Technica. I wonder what the implications are for Audiogon or even the small CA Buy & Sell forum.

 

How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from reselling just about anything | Ars Technica

 

"On Monday, the US Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that pits a major textbook publisher against Supap Kirtsaeng, a student-entrepreneur who built a small business importing and selling textbooks.

 

“This case is an attempt by some brands and manufacturers to manipulate copyright law.”

Like many Supreme Court cases, though, there's more than meets the eye. It's not merely a question of whether the Thai-born Kirtsaeng will have to cough up his profits as a copyright infringer; the case is a long-awaited rematch between content companies seeking to knock out the "first sale" doctrine on goods made abroad (not to mention their many opponents). That makes Wiley v. Kirtsaeng the highest-stakes intellectual property case of the year, if not the decade. It's not an exaggeration to say the outcome could affect the very notion of property ownership in the United States. Since most consumer electronics are manufactured outside the US and include copyrighted software in it, a loss for Kirtsaeng would mean copyright owners could tax, or even shut down, resales of everything from books to DVDs to cellphones."

[wgscott]

This started with someone importing textbooks and selling them in US markets. (American academic textbooks are sold more cheaply in other countries than they are to our own students in the US, so much so that it is actually cheaper to purchase them abroad and pay for the shipping.)

[usblues]

Really interesting article from one of my favorite sites Ars Technica. I wonder what the implications are for Audiogon or even the small CA Buy & Sell forum.

 

How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from reselling just about anything | Ars Technica

 

"On Monday, the US Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that pits a major textbook publisher against Supap Kirtsaeng, a student-entrepreneur who built a small business importing and selling textbooks.

 

“This case is an attempt by some brands and manufacturers to manipulate copyright law.”

Like many Supreme Court cases, though, there's more than meets the eye. It's not merely a question of whether the Thai-born Kirtsaeng will have to cough up his profits as a copyright infringer; the case is a long-awaited rematch between content companies seeking to knock out the "first sale" doctrine on goods made abroad (not to mention their many opponents). That makes Wiley v. Kirtsaeng the highest-stakes intellectual property case of the year, if not the decade. It's not an exaggeration to say the outcome could affect the very notion of property ownership in the United States. Since most consumer electronics are manufactured outside the US and include copyrighted software in it, a loss for Kirtsaeng would mean copyright owners could tax, or even shut down, resales of everything from books to DVDs to cellphones."

 

....dictates this won't be a problem.Ebay or a hundred others with deep-pockets will be able to postpone this decision forever.In the months it takes to implement this is when it will fade away.As the saying goes,its not the law,its who interprets it.....cheers,C. Darrow

[4est]

....dictates this won't be a problem.Ebay or a hundred others with deep-pockets will be able to postpone this decision forever.In the months it takes to implement this is when it will fade away.As the saying goes,its not the law,its who interprets it.....cheers,C. Darrow

 

Yeah, right. Like they are going to say you cannot sell a used Honda or Toyota... This may make selling used CDs an issue though. Then again, you can never really own real estate. Maybe you can never really own anything! Oh, wait... Monsanto owns the genetics of all of the food you eat!

[elcorso]

Yeah, right. Like they are going to say you cannot sell a used Honda or Toyota... This may make selling used CDs an issue though. Then again, you can never really own real estate. Maybe you can never really own anything! Oh, wait... Monsanto owns the genetics of all of the food you eat!

 

Monsanto owns your genetics also:

 

Kids are feed by cow milk, from cows that are feed with Somatotropin (STH) -Growth Hormone- Also the chicken you eat: You can a get a 12 weeks old size and weight in 4 weeks with STH I was on the milk business for 40 years (I didn't used this). Some friends are in the chicken growth business.

 

Did you notice every human generation is taller than the previous one?

 

One of my daughters and my mother also have the celiac disease, thanks to Monsanto and their genetically modified wheat and soy seeds. This is not an urban legend, the MD that cares my daughter health told me.

 

Now we to wait for Monsanto jitter, ha, ha, ha...

 

It looks like 'out of thread', but I don't believe on over regulated societies. We are in the way to socialism, aren't we? (I'm out of politics, I'm not American, but citizen of the world).

 

Roch

[mav52]

Don't worry Obama will take care of everything to your satisfaction.

[jwr]

Monsanto owns your genetics also:

 

Kids are feed by cow milk, from cows that are feed with Somatotropin (STH) -Growth Hormone- Also the chicken you eat: You can a get a 12 weeks old size and weight in 4 weeks with STH I was on the milk business for 40 years (I didn't used this). Some friends are in the chicken growth business.

 

Did you notice every human generation is taller than the previous one?

 

One of my daughters and my mother also have the celiac disease, thanks to Monsanto and their genetically modified wheat and soy seeds. This is not an urban legend, the MD that cares my daughter health told me.

 

Now we to wait for Monsanto jitter, ha, ha, ha...

 

It looks like 'out of thread', but I don't believe on over regulated societies. We are in the way to socialism, aren't we? (I'm out of politics, I'm not American, but citizen of the world).

 

Roch

 

...sensible regulation of agribusiness could have prevented Monsanto from poisoning us. Regulating those who would do harm (intentionally or inadvertently) is sanity, not socialism.

 

jwr

[wgscott]

I'm not American, but citizen of the world

 

Commie!

[4est]

...sensible regulation of agribusiness could have prevented Monsanto from poisoning us. Regulating those who would do harm (intentionally or inadvertently) is sanity, not socialism.

 

jwr

 

Too late now- they have the same rights as you and I. Crazy!

[wgscott]

Cheer up. At least if corporations are people, they should be subject to the death penalty if they kill someone.

[4est]

Cheer up. At least if corporations are people, they should be subject to the death penalty if they kill someone.

 

Ha! If only that were the case. Consider the impact of the TransCanada pipeline!!!

 

Sorry, go ahead, call me socialist ... Just think of all that crap one will not be able to sell once those people are all poisoned!

[elcorso]

Commie!

 

It's because Monsanto modified my DNA, ha, ha, ha...

 

Roch

[4est]

Good to have you back Roch!!!

[NOMBEDES]

"did you ever think that those presertatives may be preserving you?" - (apologies to Jefferson Airplane)

[souptin]

It's an interesting article.

 

Couple of rants to get out of the way:

1 - College textbook pricing. Grrrrr. It's been over 25 years and it still bugs me, and it looks like in the intervening years the practice has grown arms and legs over there in the US.

2 - "Copyright holders". I love how legislation intended to protect creators has become a tradable commodity. Not.

 

The thing is, with this particular story, I find it hard to side with the 'little guy'. Normally I love to see someone sticking it to the man, but here it looks like its a case of a wannabe man trying to enrich himself by exploiting a crack in an - admittedly itself highly exploitative - sales practice.

 

One of the lawyers defending (not Kirtsaeng, but a related case) talks about "millions of people living in poverty", as if their client was personally crusading against poverty instead of, you know, trying to make a few bucks selling secondhand stuff on ebay. Pull the other one, it's got bells on. Equally, I'm not impressed by the publishers "Authorised for sale in..." statement in the book, which becomes even more ridiculous when you take account that they will very likely have scoured the world for the cheapest production while at the same time insisting on their right to divide up the world for sales purposes.

[wgscott]

1 - College textbook pricing. Grrrrr. It's been over 25 years and it still bugs me, and it looks like in the intervening years the practice has grown arms and legs over there in the US.

 

I still have some of the textbooks I bought in 1983 when I lived in Edinburgh. They were significantly cheaper than the same ones were in the US.

 

I'm using a biochemistry book now in a class I teach that costs $250, and it isn't even that good. I found a different one where they sell individual chapters for $9 apiece.

[souptin]

Glasgow had a very good secondhand bookseller that specialised in school and college books. ABC Books? They were well organised and knew what the course books would be for the local students. I clearly remember the stigma of having secondhand books when I was a school kid, but when I went to college (in London) and had to pay out of my grant money... Ouch! They didn't have (or I wasn't streetwise enough to find) an equivalent of ABC Books, and I remember being deeply suspicious that there was an unholy alliance between the lecturers and the official onsite bookseller. Good thing I wasn't smart enough or adventurous enough to go study in th US.

 

On the bright side, after I graduated I got a decent price from gold old ABC for my books. Half of them were mint, hardly been opened! Which is another story altogether.