Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

Supap KIRTSAENG, dba Bluechristine 99, Petitioner

v.

JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.

No. 11–697.

Argued Oct. 29, 2012.

Decided March 19, 2013.

The facts

Student from Thailand by the name Supap Kirtsaeng who arrived in the United States in 1997 to attend Cornell University discovered that the same textbooks that he was buying inside the US were sold cheaper in his home country. Supap have decided to start a side business by reselling foreign edition textbooks in the US and use the resulting profit to support his tuition and living expenses. Supap’s family and friends have shipped him books that he sold through Ebay and made around $1.2 million in revenue.

In 2008, John Wilet & Sons, Inc, files suit against Supap Kirtsaeng for copyright infringement and won in two lower courts. Additionally, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban on importation of copyrighted works without the authority of the U.S. copyright owner.

Kirtseeng had appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the first-sale doctrine Copyright Act by § 109(a), a clause in the United States copyright, which enables residents of the United States to resell legally obtained objects without asking for the copyright owner's permission on the secondary sales. The doctrine permits only a buyer’s distribution right and not the power to reproduce a book or DVD or any other copyright protected property. Essentially this doctrine allows function of the secondary markets like flea markets and online resellers such as Craigslist and eBay. Additionally it ensures legality of library lending, gift giving and rentals of a wide range of intellectual property.

The legal Issue

The publisher John Wilet & Sons had a clear declaimer on all books printed overseas: "This book is authorized for sale in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle...