Textbook Reseller Won First-Sale Rights

In 1997, a Thai man named Supap Kirtsaeng moved to the United States to study mathematics at Cornell University and discovered that textbooks sold there cost considerably less in Thailand. He asked relatives to buy foreign editions in Thailand and mail them to him, then resold them on eBay for $1.2 million in revenue, although the parties disputed his actual profit. Publisher John Wiley & Sons sued him for copyright infringement in 2008 and won in two lower courts, which ruled that he could not use the first-sale doctrine for books manufactured abroad. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed those decisions 6-3, ruling that lawfully made copies purchased anywhere in the world could be resold in the United States without the publisher's permission.

Previous Fact Next Fact