The First Sale Doctrine, Section 109(a) of the Copyright Act allows the owner of

Question

The First Sale Doctrine, Section 109(a) of the Copyright Act allows the owner of any copyrighted material to sell the material without the permission of the copyright owner. This is what allows you to buy a textbook from the CCBC bookstore and then re-sell the book either back to the Bookstore or to another individual without getting into trouble with the publisher of the textbook. Well an enterprising young man and graduate student from Thailand used friends and family to buy copies of textbooks published outside of the US- at a significant discount from US prices (why is everything cheaper when produced outside of the US) and then he resold the books to US students at deeply discounted prices. He made about $100,000 on eBay doing this. He was sued by the publisher of eight of the textbooks he resold. The student enlisted the First Sale Rule as a defense under Copyright law. The textbook publisher tried to argue that the First Sale Doctrine applied only to books published in the US - and the trial court and circuit court of appeals agreed with the publisher. The student then appealed to the US Supreme Court AND HE WON! The US Supreme Court agreed with him and held that it did not matter that the material was produced abroad. That the First Sale Rule favored a non-geographic interpretation.

So what do you think -textbook manufacturers have to contend with tons of competition at home and now abroad. They have tight profit margins (so they claim)- should a person be able to buy cheaper textbooks abroad and resell them here? It is sort of like buying prescription drugs online from Canada - same principle. Should the Congress change the law to protect American textbook publishers?

Explanation / Answer

In above given case the student who has committed the sales to his family and friends and then resold them to the US Students at cheap rate. The SC also favored due to First Sale Rule and thus it hs incurred a great loss to the US Publishers and manufacturers.

To overcome this and maintain the goodwill of manufacturers, US should pass a low prohibiting any sales of books published outside the country or else it will be violation of copyright of the books and person held responsible will have to face the consquences. This will rebuilt the trust amongst the industry of textbook manufacturers and also provide security against such incidences.

Also a law passing the sales of Books online would further more secure and eradicate these loopholes over a period of time. It will result in boosted sales of US manufactured books available to US Students only. Further monetization of this knowledge will be prevented through this kind of lawsuit and help to govern better.

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