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First-Sale Doctrine Lost Overseas
Max Hyre writes "In a 4-4 decision, the US Supreme court let
stand the Ninth Circuit's decision that
the First-Sale Doctrine (which says once you buy something, the maker
gets no say in what you do with it) only applies to goods
made in the US. That Omega watch you bought in Switzerland last
year? It's yours now—forever. You can't sell
it without Omega's permission."
That is the most absurd and arbitrary distinction I've ever heard. A law of convenience if I ever heard of one. One step closer to stripping our rights in the name of international legal harmony.
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
The headline is overstating things a lot. The First-Sale Doctrine isn't lost overseas. Since this is a 4-4 tie decision by the Supreme Court, only the lower court decision is upheld. There is no precedential force behind the decision at all. Thus, the only thing that can be said about this is that Costco loses this particular instance, but the right of First-Sale overseas remains in effect since this decision isn't useful for any subsequent precedent.
http://www.slate.com/id/2109077/ --- A good analysis of what happens when a tied decision occurs.
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
"prevent U.S. retailers from selling goods they obtained overseas."
There is a difference between "produced overseas" and "obtained overseas".
The summary is written is misleading. The distinction made by the Ninth Circuit depends both on where an item was made as well as where it was sold. If you legally purchase a foreign made product in the US (ie from an authorized reseller like Walmart), then the right of first sale still applies. However, you can't buy foreign products in a foreign country and then resell them in the US without permission.
I still think it's a bad decision but the summary makes it out to be even worse.
Why? Partly because she was the Solicitor General:
SHAPIRO: How common is it for a new justice to have to recuse from the number of cases that Kagan is recusing herself from?
TOTENBERG: Well, it's not common because, at least more recently, we haven't had top Justice Department officials migrating to the court. But it's happened many times in our history. Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was solicitor general, for example, recused himself from about half the cases the court heard in his first year. But that high number was largely because he remained SG until he was confirmed.
And Kagan didn't do that. She stopped being SG right after her nomination. So, this high number of recusals, I think, is front loaded. She'll probably be recused from about a third of the docket this year, and then next year her recusals will plummet to zero or something close to that.
One interesting thing, Ari, is that there are a number of cases that she's reused herself from that she really had nothing to do with. And these are cases that generally involve commercial disputes. And the Justice Department filed a notice that it was taking no position, and these are just routine evaluations. They're done by lower-level lawyers but she signed the filing, so she's taking herself out of those cases.
SHAPIRO: And when she's recused and there are eight justices on the Supreme Court, what happens then?
TOTENBERG: Well, the case goes forward, as usual. And if there's a four-to-four tie, the lower court opinion is automatically affirmed without the Supreme Court issued any opinion, then presumably the issue can come up in another case, later, where Kagan can participate.
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
The prohibition is on distribution of copies or derivative works. Not resale of the original.
Specifically due to the 'first sale' doctrine - the copyright holder controls distribution only through the first transaction, not through subsequent transactions. Since this ruling says that 'first sale' does not apply to goods procured outside the US, it means that the copyright holder does retain distribution control of the original copyrighted work.
It's an absolutely unforgivably terrible ruling, but that's what it says.
You can!
Here's what you do - build a house on your own dime, then rent it to people. You can get income for the rest of your life, for doing nothing!
Now, here's the rub: When you do something like that, you usually have to pay a tax to the government on an annual basis based on the total value of the property - just a couple percent. Maybe that's what we need for copyright?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
If I had the power to destroy one fiendishly wrong-headed notion before I die, the following would be on the short list:
The justices did what they were supposed to do: Enforce the law as written.
Sigh. Have you seen the inscriptions over the Court? ""Equal Justice Under Law" coming, "Justice, the Guardian of Liberty" going. Maybe you've seen the statue of the blind-folded chick? Wanna take a guess what her name is?
The ultimate job of the Court is not just "to follow the rules." A third-grade hall monitor would be sufficient for that. The ultimate job of the Court is to find what is Just. It is the job of a god in the hands of flawed, fallible men. This is the reason why we are supposed to find our nine finest legal minds, our nine wisest elders.
In our finest legal traditions, we have found that the beginning of Justice, the bare minimum, is to keep the Strong from preying on the Weak, and that is why Dred Scott is such a famously reprehensible decision. We don't condemn the Sharia judges for stoning women to death because they're misapplying the rules. We condemn them for the evil they do by refusing to look beyond the rulebook. The Dred Scott Court cannot excuse themselves by crying "We were just following the rules" any more than other famously evil men can.
When we put guns in the hands of 18-year-old kids and tell them to go and kill in our name, we give them a warning. If the rules conflict with your conscience, if you do something you know is wrong by following the rules, you will one day be held accountable, and crying "I was just doing what the rules said I should," will not save you.
The job of the Court is to find Justice as best Humanity can in the year 2010. It is their black-letter job to stand in the gap and say "This rule, written by the Strong to steal from the Weak, is wrong and we will not abide it."
The Court is supposed to be the Conscience of our Nation, not nine bureaucrats bludgeoning people with the results of lobbies and politics.
The job of the Dred Scott Court was to keep men free. to be the "Guardians of Liberty" as inscribed, not to safeguard the pocketbooks of their kidnappers and rapists. The Dred Scott judges were not "Bad men, but good judges." They were evil men and bad judges as well.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."