Posted on 10/07/2012 2:48:27 PM PDT by NonValueAdded
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother’s antique furniture to your iPhone 4.
At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products.
[snip]
That’s being challenged now for products that are made abroad, and if the Supreme Court upholds an appellate court ruling, it would mean that the copyright holders of anything you own that has been made in China, Japan or Europe, for example, would have to give you permission to sell it.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Ahhh no it isn't. The reason people are licensed to do business is first to buy merchandise that will be used to resell without paying "sales" tax" and then they must charge and collect sales tax and remit it to the state.
However if I buy items without that business license then those selling it to me must charge sales tax (even if they don't charge me for the taxes they must remit them to the State Tax Agency for any sales of items direct to entities that don't have a Business License.) AND I then don't have to charge sales tax when I resell it, because the Sales tax has already been paid. (Except for things with titles like cars and such which is a different sort of tax)
Now the Gub'ment would like you to believe that its against the law for you to resell new items you bought sans a Business License but it isn't. All a business license is, (save for those specialized things that concern health issues) is an agreement to collect the sales tax the State charges and it allows you to buy wholesale without paying sales tax on merchandise you are going to resell.
Wow, that sounds so much like illegal copyright infringement, which could land you in jail or get you a huge legal penalty.
How did you get the book’s owner and publisher to agree to your scheme? I would have thought they would just run off some more books....
STILL seems cut and dried to me.
If Wiley sells books so cheaply abroad that they can be IMPORTED and sold more cheaply in the US, than books already produced here, well, that is their problem, not the sellers.
By the time the books were ready, the students would be finished for the semester, and the students would have no need for them.
The publisher should have upheld the contract for the books so ordered by refunding the money the students paid to order the books in the first place. We all did the right thing, and the publisher took our money and delivered nothing.
Rather then sue the publisher for the money - the essential problem was solved. We all got what we paid for, eventually.
It would make sense if each person photocopied the book for their personal use. I don’t understand why any of you would simply accept a seller taking money and not delivering. Any small claims court would get you back your money plus costs. It’s hard to imagine a publisher taking the chance of damage claims either.
It becomes iffy if one person starts making enough profit in selling photocopies of a library book to pay for a year of college.
So? That is what my entire business is based on. I buy with the intent to resell and make a profit.
If they don't sell, if I make a boo-boo, then I am stuck giving a quarter ton of sock monkeys to the Salvation Army.
One, it would have taken time to take them to court and get our money back and in the meantime, still not getting the materials that we needed. Once I printed there was no need to fight to get our money back, because we had what we needed, the readings.
Two, it was a course materials package. What I did was photocopy only the required readings from each book. So it wasn’t a photocopy of the book, it was a photocopy of the readings, printed and put together and organized according to how our prof wanted them read. At the 50 bucks I charged it was one fourth what it would have cost to buy all the books, plus it was much smaller since it had only the required readings.
Anyways, if the publisher wanted to sue - they would have had to sue the professor too. The same guy recommending that they use his books. ;) It wouldn’t have been a wise decision for them to go after their customers.
“Here in Ga. scrap metal dealers are now asking for
photo ID. in order to buy YOUR scrap.”
I do not believe this is relevant to the story...the photo ID thing on scrap is because of all the copper etc being stripped from empty foreclosure properties etc and being sold for scrap. This is an attempt on the part of the scrap dealers to protect themselves from charges of buying stolen property.
I am certain you would enjoy Gordon S. Wood's “The Creation of the American Republic.” Check out the reviews at Amazon.
We revolted against Great Britain in part because we refused to accept importation of British political and social corruption.
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