Your right to resell your own stuff is in peril

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

Jennifer Water
Market Watch
The Wall Street Journal
10/12/2012

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s 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 Inc. (US:AAPL) has the copyright on the iPhone and Mark Owen has it 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…

The article continues at The Wall Street Journal.

Update: Sound the alarm SCOTUS case threatens property rights

…This is where yard sales, flea markets, thrift stores, auctions, swap meets, pawn shops, gun shows, and person to person sales come have traditionally come in. It is a vital part of the Alabama economy. These outlets provide a means for the owners of items to sell them. Resell of privately owned property provides:

  • income
  • jobs
  • a way to rid oneself of uneeded items
  • the pursuit of happiness

The Supreme Court of the United States (which has recently decreed the blatantly unconstitutional Obamacare lawful) is currently deliberating our right to resell our own property. The case is Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley and Sons which could lead to American citizens having to acquire “permission” and pay fees and taxes to copyright holders of the product prior to resell…

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