Quote:
Originally Posted by SeaKing
I read a little more into the cases and it seems the problem is when an item is meant to be sold cheaper abroad than in the USA. Some guy imported some text books and sold them on e-bay (as new) cheaper than they could be purchased in the USA. That is not exactly the used market.
I don't know what will happen.
|
Ah, it's a gray market case!
And they're trying to use copyright as the bludgeon this time?
Manufacturers have been fighting this war for decades; they've tried contract law, licensing agreements, everything they can.
Odds of success just went down. More, even if they win this is only about product manufactured abroad intended for sale outside the US; basically about manufacturers forbidding importation/resale into the US. It is a narrow category.
The Atlantic folks are hyperventilating: some of the examples are a reach, at best.
The law is ambiguous in parts but it is just as likely that First Sale gets extended to everything brought into the country as it gets restricted with foreign manufactured goods *not* intended for US sale. That qualifier maters.
As the article points out (buried deep) the Supreme Court is usually on the lookout for "absurd results" where the literal application of a law leads to clearly unacceptable outcomes: the iPad example, for one. iPads sold in the US are intended to be sold to US consumers so denying First Sale rights to the buyer is exactly the kind of "absurd result" the court will be looking for.
It'll be (somewhat) interesting to see how they rule, but odds are the ruling won't make much of a difference.