Earlier today, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Supap Kirtsaeng, a Thai student studying in the United States who started his own business reselling textbooks after he discovered that they cost significantly less in Thailand than in the U.S.Buying the books overseas and then flipping them for a profit became a lucrative business for Kirtsaeng, but it ran afoul of publishers who were being undercut by his model. Kirtsaeng said he was protected by the doctrine of first-sale, essentially giving him the right to resell property–even intellectual property–that he had acquired legally.The Motion Picture Association of America and Recording Industry Association of America filed amicus briefs with John Wiley and Sons, the publisher who sued claiming that extending the first-sale doctrine to works sold abroad “could impede authors’ ability to control entry into distinct markets, limit their flexibility to adapt to market conditions, or undermine territorial licensing agreements.”While this case itself poses a pretty specific scenario, the reason the MPAA and RIAA chose to become involved is clear; this means that media released early, or less expensively, in smaller markets or areas where people are less willing or less able to pay for their entertainment can legally be imported and resold. This can be applied to all sorts of media (perhaps including, the MPAA fears, bootleg DVDs sold in countries that don’t respect copyrights, although it’s difficult to imagine that the Court would rule that way if push came to shove since it’s a very separate issue), but it’s particularly notable in the area of foreign-made films, books and other media which haven’t yet been made available for sale in the U.S. market.Rights-holders have often tried to make such sales as difficult as possible, especially as it relates to operations like Kirtsaeng’s, where they’re being resold. This ruling may be seen as clearing the way for easier access to a variety of intellectual property not widely available for sale in the U.S. currently. It may also pressure the firms that buy U.S. rights on those products to make them accessible and affordable on an accelerated timetable.
