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The 2013 Supreme Court case was *Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.* [1]. Legal analysts drew parallels to the 1984 *Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.* (the "Betamax case") because both rulings affirmed consumer rights and enabled new markets despite opposition from copyright holders [2, 3]. The student defendant in the 2013 case was **Supap Kirtsaeng**, a Thai citizen who came to the U.S. for a mathematics Ph.D. at Cornell University. He imported and resold cheaper, foreign-made editions of textbooks to help finance his education [4]. The specific copyright doctrine upheld by the Supreme Court in its 6-3 decision was the **first-sale doctrine**. This principle states that once a copyright owner lawfully sells a copy of their work, they cannot control its subsequent sale or distribution. The Court clarified that this doctrine applies to goods manufactured and legally purchased abroad, not just those made domestically [1, 5]. During the 1980s Betamax debate, MPAA head Jack Valenti famously described the threat of the VCR to the film industry with the metaphor: **"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone"** [6]. Following the *Kirtsaeng* decision, legal attention turned to a Massachusetts-based startup named **ReDigi**. Billed as a "secondhand market for digital content," the company allowed users to sell their "used" digital music files. Despite the precedent set by *Kirtsaeng* for physical goods, ReDigi lost a lawsuit brought by Capitol Records in 2013, with a court ruling that its digital resale service infringed on copyrights [3, 7]. ## References [1] *Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.*, 568 U.S. 519 (2013). supremecourt.gov. [2] Denison, D.C. (2013, March 19). Supreme Court backs right to resell goods from abroad. *The Boston Globe*. [3] Raustiala, K. (2013, April 1). Digital music’s cloudy future. *The New York Times*. [4] Liptak, A. (2013, March 4). Supreme Court gives victory to student in copyright case. *The New York Times*. [5] Samuelson, P. (2013). The Supreme Court's Kirtsaeng decision. *Communications of the ACM*, 56(6), 26-28. [6] Rosen, R. J. (2012, October 12). The long, tortured life of the VCR. *The Atlantic*. [7] Sisario, B. (2013, March 31). Ruling turns up the volume in a digital music war. *The New York Times*.

The 2013 Supreme Court case was **Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 568 U.S. 519 (2013)**, involving Thai math student **Supap Kirtsaeng**.[2][6] Kirtsaeng had family and friends in Thailand buy low-priced foreign edition textbooks and ship them to him in the United States, where he resold them for profit.[2][6] The Court held, in a 6–3 decision, that the **copyright “first sale” doctrine** in 17 U.S.C. §109(a) applies to copies **lawfully made abroad**, thereby allowing owners of such copies to import and resell them in the U.S. without the copyright holder’s permission.[1][2][6] This doctrine—also central to the 1984 **Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.** (“Betamax”) decision—limits a copyright owner’s control after the initial authorized sale and underpins secondary markets like video rentals.[1][6] During the earlier VCR battles, MPAA president **Jack Valenti** famously warned Congress that “**the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone**,” a metaphor frequently cited in later analyses of disruptive copying technologies.[6] In 2013 commentary connecting Kirtsaeng and Sony to emerging digital resale issues, legal analysts pointed to **ReDigi**, a **Massachusetts-based startup** described as a “secondhand market for digital content,” which enabled users to resell “used” iTunes music files and was sued by **Capitol Records** despite these first-sale precedents.[6] ## References [1] LNG Patent – Supreme Court Rules Against Publisher in Textbook Copyright Case [2] Flagler Law Group – Supreme Court Rules Against Publishers On First Sale Issue [6] Wikipedia – Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.