Your right to resell your own stuff is in peril

It could become illegal to resell your iPhone 4, car or family antiques

By Jennifer Waters, MarketWatch
Oct. 4, 2012

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) - Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court's busy 
agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability 
to resell everything from your grandmother's antique furniture to 
your iPhone 4.

At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine 
in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like 
electronics, books, artwork and furniture as well as CDs and DVDs, 
without getting permission from the copyright holder of those 
products.

Under the doctrine, which the Supreme Court has recognized since 
1908, you can resell your stuff without worry because the copyright 
holder only had control over the first sale.

Put simply, though Apple has the copyright on the iPhone and Mark 
Owen does on the book "No Easy Day," you can still sell your copies 
to whomever you please whenever you want without retribution.

That's being challenged now for products that are made abroad and if 
the Supreme Court upholds an appellate court ruling it would mean 
that the copyright holders of anything you own that has been made in 
China, Japan or Europe, for example, would have to give you 
permission to sell it.

...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/your-right-to-resell-your-own-stuff-is-in-peril-2012-10-04

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