On 29 October, the Supreme Court of the United States will start a trial that is expected to set a nationwide standard regarding the first-sale doctrine. 

The first-sale doctrine implies that if a copyrighted work is legitimately purchased in the United States, the purchaser is allowed to redistribute the work without the permission of the copyright's holder. The copyright holder only has control over the first sale of the work. The first-sale doctrine does not permit the purchaser to make or distribute additional copies of the work. Up to now, it isn't clear if the first-sale doctrine also applies when a copyrighted work is purchased outside the United States. 

In the underlying case, Kirtsaeng, a Thai student at Cornell University, collected textbooks required for his classes from Thailand, as they were sold there at a much lower price. Friends and family in Thailand bought the textbooks in Thai bookstores and shipped them to the United States. Eventually, Kirtsaeng started to sell books from Thailand online with profit to fellow students. 

Despite the fact that the textbooks were legally manufactured in Thailand, publisher John Wiley & Sons sued Kirtsaeng, arguing that the copyright law doesn't allow unauthorized sales of the textsbooks from abroad. On the other hand, Kirtsaeng stated that he was the lawful owner of the books and therefore had the right to resell them. The District Court of New York and the Second Circuit court both ruled in favor of John Wiley & Sons. Kirtsaeng had to pay the publisher a compensation of $600,000, more than 15 times the amount that he made from the sale of the books.

The central question that the Supreme Court will have to answer is whether the first-sale doctrine applies to products bought abroad. If the Supreme Court will follow the lower courts in its ruling, it might become illegal to resell products imported from countries outside the United States. This might have a big influence on resale-based organizations and websites like eBay, that allows people to buy and sell their belongings online. In opposition of this possible outcome, a coalition group called Citizens for Ownership Rights has started a petition. They have delivered the first 100,000 signatures to the President of the United States.

Earlier this month, the District Court of New York heard the opening arguments in another case about the first-sale doctrine. In this case, the question is whether the first-sale doctrine also applies to digital music. FutureOfCopyright follows both cases with great interest and will keep you informed about the developments.

Read more about the first-sale doctrine on FutureOfCopyright.com:

• US Court about to rule whether first-sale doctrine applies to digital music
• Supreme Court of Justice about to set US standard regarding first-sale doctrine

Sources: RT.com, Citizens for Ownership Rights