While I think the court made the right decision I think this is an example of bad cases making bad law or more particularly the law of unintended cosequences. I don't believe there will be any change in the US but since most academic publishers make the overwhelming majority of their sales in financial terms in US, Canada, Europe and Australia, I suspect they will either stop selling the lower priced versions in Asia, Africa etc or price them at the same level as the US which would have the same effect. They are not going to risk the kind of large scale organized importation of the cheaper copies that happened in this case ( $900,000 in this particular case). If they have to choose between no longer offering books at lower prices to countries who probably can't afford it and losing massive amount of their revenue, it is going to be a no brainer. Sadly there was no legal middle ground here for the court to choose and there is likely no middle ground for the publishers to choose.
I think a lot of libraries and students outside North America and Europe are about to lose access to a lot of important material. On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 1:59 PM, Deg Farrelly <[email protected]> wrote: > FYI, from the ARL Directors discussion list, today (ARL = Association of > Research Libraries) > > The Supreme Court just announced the much-anticipated decision in > Kirtsaeng v. Wiley, a lawsuit regarding the bedrock principle of the first > sale doctrine. The 6-3 opinion is a total victory for libraries and our > users. It vindicates the principle of the first sale doctrine -- if you > bought it, you own it. All who believe in that principle, and the certainty > it provides to libraries and many other parts of our culture and economy, > should applaud the Court for correcting the legal ambiguity that led to > this case in the first place. It is especially gratifying that Justice > Breyer’s majority opinion focused on the considerable harm that the Second > Circuit’s opinion would have caused libraries. - Prudence Adler > > Info on Kirstaeng v. Wiley: > > Association of American Publishers > http://www.publishers.org/kirtsaeng-faq/ > > Citizens for Ownership Rights > http://ownershiprights.org/kirtsaeng-vs-wiley > > Cornell University Legal Information Institute > http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/11-697 > > -deg > > deg farrelly, Media Librarian > Arizona State University Libraries > Hayden Library C1H1 > P.O. Box 871006 > Tempe, Arizona 85287-1006 > Phone: 602.332.3103 > > --- > To market, to market, to find some fresh film… > I'm attending the 2013 National Media Market, November 3-7 > In Charleston, South Carolina. See you there? > > VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of > issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic > control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in > libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as > an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of > communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video > producers and distributors. > >
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
