High Court Hears Key Copyright Case

While Hurricane Sandy battered the region, the Supreme Court proceeded to hear arguments in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Co. on Monday, Oct. 29th. The issue in this hotly contested case is whether the copyright law’s “First Sale Doctrine” allows someone who purchased copyrighted works overseas may sell them here in the U.S. without authorization from the publisher. SIIA’s amicus brief in the case defended the view that these purchases violate U.S. copyright law, since the first sale doctrine does not apply to a work made and sold abroad. The Kirtsaeng case will likely be a monumental case for both the content publishing and software industries — it will affect the distribution, market segmenting, and licensing practices on which their businesses are significantly built. Within the Supreme Court, the Justices seem fairly split on the issues (see full transcript). SIIA has been actively pushing our position on this issue in the press, releasing press statements and publishing various blog posts on the topic. Additionally, SIIA’s Keith Kupferschmid participated in a panel discussion last week on HuffPo Live. Read more here.

IP News

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