Supreme Court sides with bookseller in major copyright ruling, says resale is ok

In a court ruling that has major implications for used good merchants across the country, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that forbid a textbook seller from reselling textbooks that he had purchased from overseas.

In a 6-3 ruling, the court rejected publisher John Wiley’s interpretation of a rule known as the “first sale doctrine” which prevents copyright owners from exerting rights over a product once it has been purchased legally. This rule is what allows used book and music stores to sell used items with the copyright owners permission.

In recent years, copyright owners facing a wave of imported good have argued that the “first sale” only applies to goods manufactured in the United States. Lower courts have till now sided with the copyright owners which has produced considerable uncertainty about whether or not retailers good import and sells goods that they had legally bought from abroad.

Writing for the majority, Justice Stephen Breyer rejected John Wiley’s argument that the phrase “lawfully made under this act” implied a geographic limitation. He also referred to library associations, used-book dealers, technology companies, consumer-goods retailers, and museums — all of which had urged the court to reject the restricted notion of “first sale.”

The ruling is likely to be a relief for used booksellers and others who feared that geographical limits on first sale would harm their business. In the case before the Supreme Court, the defendant was a college student who had arranged for his family in Asia to buy textbooks and mail them to him in America where he sold them at a profit.

Justices Ginsburg, Kennedy and Scalia dissented from the ruling.

More soon.