We look forward to the brief being filed by PublicKnowledge. As set out by Williams Mullen, the Kirstaeng case is an interesting one:
“In John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Kirtsaeng, No. 09-4896-cv (2d. Cir. August 15, 2011), the Second Circuit affirmed a district court decision and held that the first sale doctrine does not apply to copyrighted works produced outside of the United States – in this instance, lawfully manufactured textbooks – that are subsequently imported and resold in the United States.”
It is just not clear to me why, in a global economy, there is any distinction between protection of a first sale abroad as opposed to a first sale in the United States.
Here is another take on this issue by ClodigyLaw:
“If this sounds like convoluted reasoning, that’s because it is. What really seems to be going on is that the court is protecting Wiley’s ability to set different prices for different markets, using copyright law to prevent arbitrage.”
