# What is this First Sale brouhaha?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-first-sale-brouhaha/637204>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 9, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-first-sale-brouhaha/637204 "2012-10-09T13:19:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-first-sale-brouhaha/637204/1 "2012-10-09T13:19:18Z")

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Apparently it could be illegal to resell anything made outside the USA without permission.

Article [here](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/your-right-to-resell-your-own-stuff-is-in-peril-2012-10-04?pagenumber=1).

This sounds completely f\*\*k\*ng stupid. Never mind the private citizen; wouldn’t this have a massive effect on commerce? Think of clothes shops, Walmart, and other importers.

(The issue of Wiley’s price-gouging American students is probably best left to GD.)

Of course, I’m British, so I’m significantly ignorant of the issues here. Educate me, please, Dopers.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-first-sale-brouhaha/637204/2 "2012-10-09T13:59:21Z")

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It’s spelled out in the article: in the US, if you buy a book, you can do what you want with it, including selling it. Wiley is trying to change that.

Any ruling would only apply to copyrighted works (so no clothes), but the first thing that it would do is make it impossible to sell books except from the publisher. If Wiley publishes a book, they sell it to a wholesaler, who sells it to a retailer, who sells it to a customer. If first sale is illegal, then that chain is broken.

I really can’t see the Supreme Court having any logical reason to repeal first sale rights. Not that the Supreme Court is always logical in its rulings.