first sale doctrine

The Supreme Court recently handed down its decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, a copyright exhaustion case concerning the sale of “gray-market” works published outside the United States and imported for sale. In a surprisingly decisive 6-3 decision, the Court reversed the Second Circuit’s decision and held that ...

On the eve of the arrival of Superstorm Sandy, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in John Wiley and Sons v. Kirtsaeng, a case involving the international reach of the First Sale Doctrine. The impending storm provided a fittingly overwrought metaphor for the Court’s attempt to ...