US SUPREME COURT FINDS THAT FIRST SALE DOCTRINE APPLIES TO OVERSEAS WORKS -
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
In a 6-3 decision, the US Supreme Court found that the first-sale doctrine applies to copies of a copyrighted work lawfully made abroad. This means that if someone purchases a product copyrighted overseas, they can then resell as they wish. The first sale doctrine holds that intellectual property rights associated with a particular copy of a work are exhausted once there is an authorized sale or manufacture of the that copy. This doctrine allows for a purchasers of lawfully made products to resell them freely and with this new decision, confirms that it applies to property lawfully made outside of the US.
This applies to not only books but also CDs, DVDs, computers, watches and anything else with copyrighted material in it.