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Originally Posted by Daithi
The first trial was a jury trial. The appeal went to the Second Circuit so it was just decided by judges. Here is a better link on the case. This article also says, "[Due to this ruling] the first sale doctrine would not apply to goods made overseas." However, I don't know if this would really apply to all goods, or just copyrighted goods. |
Just a note, here in Texas at least we've had a bunch of jury decisions overturned recently, solely on the grounds that the appeals court was (1) of the opinion that the jury wasn't competent to make a decision, and (2) that it could have a negative impact on Texas being a paradise for large companies. Of further note was that the Texas justices who have made those decisions were all of the same political party, and IIRC fairly recent appointees.
On a larger scale, however, if these judges really were deciding that foreign-made goods can't be resold without the original manufacturer getting a cut, then it would pretty much kill American manufacture. Why make goods over here that can be resold, when you could ship all your manufacture over there and get a cut whenever the goods are resold?
And I mean any goods, not just a few textbooks. The whole American secondary market for everything could be destroyed within a matter of hours.