The article that I am going to be discussing this week
focuses on the resale of copyrighted imports.
The situation came about when a Thai student was caught selling
textbooks that his family imported from Thailand. The family would purchase the books at a much
cheaper rate, ship them to Supap Kirtsaeng (the Thai student in America), and
he would resell them for a profit. One
of the publishers of the text books, John Wily & Sons decided to sue Supap
for his actions. The publishing company
was originally awarded $600,000 for the copyright infringement, but this award
was later reversed by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mr. Kirtsaeng, ruling that imported
copyrighted goods were subject to the same rules as goods bought in the
US. The owners of the copyrighted
material are now free to do whatever they like with them. There is a growing
concern that this ruling could lead to increased prices overall and may also
hurt developing countries. This is going
to limit publishers’ ability to sell books in a developing nation at a cheaper
price and ultimately will result in higher prices overall. Personally I feel like this act is going to
be detrimental to developing nations. It
is already very difficult to obtain a proper education in developing
nations. And this will only lead to make
it more difficult. The cost of books and
copyrighted goods are going to have to remain the same price on the global
market. Publishing companies fear that
if they remain selling their goods at a discounted price in the developing
nations, they will be losing sales in developed nations because consumers will
be able to buy the cheaper books from someone selling them in a developing
nation. I will continue to follow this
situation and am very curious to see where it will lead us in the future.
This article can be found at:
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