According to a
MarketWatch article the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case to determine if the First Sell doctrine only applies to U.S. manufactured goods. Apparently, a student from Thailand that was attending school at Cornell University discovered that his textbooks were a lot more expensive here in the U.S. than the same exact textbooks sold back in Thailand. The student had a great idea -- buy a crap load of the books in Thailand, ship them to the U.S., and resell them on eBay. He made over a million bucks. He was working under the assumption that once he bought the books that he could resell them without any copyright problems because he believed the First Sell doctrine would apply. However, the publisher took him to court and he lost. The lower court ruled that the First Sell doctrine only applies to American-made products or “copies manufactured domestically”. The student appealed the decision but the appeals court also sided with the publishers. The case is now going to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court sides with the publishers it could have far reaching consequences, including providing manufacturers with further incentive to move production of goods overseas so that they can gain control over the resale of goods. After all, if First Sale doctrine only applied to U.S. manufactured goods then if you wanted to sell a car made overseas you would need to get permission (and/or pay a fee) from the original manufacturer before you were allowed to sell your car.