Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
I think it was a very bad idea ever to ban "grey imports". I regret that it's still the case in the EU.
And if this ruling had gone the other way, far more than grey imports would have been banned.
Any item containing any copyright material that was manufactured outside the US would have become illegal to resell in the US. Even if bought there. A publisher would have been able to print books in China for sale in the US market, and then forbidden the resale of those books.
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Not . . . really. Aside from SCOTUS not having to make any particular ruling bindind case law, the issue in this case was specifically books printed
and sold in a country that is not part of the Berne Convention, and has no first sale doctrine of its own. The issue was whether or not it was legal to import books to sell in violation of another countries laws, specifically when those laws conflict with US law and international treaties the US has signed.
This was really a very limited case, despite the hysteria that was generated over it.