The Supreme Court has agreed to look at the parallel import of copyrighted works. This section of the article caught my eye. It got me thinking about the consequences if the court ruled in favor of copyright holders.
From the article:
Quality King involved copyrighted works manufactured in the United States that were exported to foreign distributors, who then re-imported the works back into the United States for resale without the copyright owner’s permission. In that context, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the first sale doctrine limited the scope of § 602(a) and thus the foreign distributor who re-imported the works could assert the first sale doctrine as a defense. However, the Quality King Court did not rule on whether the first sale doctrine would apply to works manufactured outside of the United States, however. Nevertheless, the 2d Circuit in Kirtsaeng held that the first sale doctrine only applies to products physically manufactured in the United States.
Unintended Consequence - Manufacturers now have one more incentive not to manufacture in the United States.
