Petition Filed to SCOTUS to review John Wiley & Sons, Inc. First Sale Doctrine Case

Public Knowledge (PK), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and U.S. Interest Public Interest Group asked the Supreme Court today to review a lower court decision in the case John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Kirtsaeng that could have major implications for the first sale doctrine and the ability of libraries to offer foreign-made books on their shelves.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August that Supap Kirtsaeng, a Thai man studying in the United States, infringed upon John Wiley & Sons’ copyrights when he had his family send him cheaper foreign editions of Wiley textbooks, printed by Wiley Asia, that he then resold on eBay for a profit.

Kirtsaeng has argued that the first sale doctrine gave him the right to resell the textbooks, but the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled against this argument in October 2009 and awarded John Wiley $600,000 in statutory damages. The Second Circuit upheld that decision.

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/01/copyright/supreme-court-asked-to-review-significant-first-sale-ruling/