Put those cards down, kid! Do you have the copyright for those?!
As a storage hunter, you know that the resale industry is very important. Why even attend a storage auction if you can't resell the goods you find, right?
Well, thanks to a case currently being reviewed by The Supreme Court, reselling goods that you bought might soon be considered illegal. That sounds absolutely ridiculous, right? How is that even possible when you already paid for it fair and square? Well, according to this absurd and alarming article , it's entirely possible. Take a quick look at it.
The basic gist of this story is about a young man named Supap Kirtsaeng who came from Thailand in 1997 to attend college in the good old U.S. of A. When he discovered that his text books, made by a company named John Wiley & Sons, were significantly cheaper to buy in his home country, he asked his family to buy copies for him and send them over here. After he was done with them, he resold them on eBay and somehow managed to make roughly 1.2 million dollars. John Wiley & Sons, after hearing about this and probably pretty burned that a college kid had managed to outsmart them, subsequently sued him for copyright infringement. This is the money-grubbing, legal-action-happy kind of thing that would happen only in America.
Kirtsaeng countered the case with the first-sale doctrine, which up until this point, protected and allowed buyers to resell goods that they had legally purchased without the permission of the original copyright holder. This included all goods, ranging from DVDs to books to artwork and anything in between. However, in 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court’s ruling that anything that was manufactured overseas is not subject to the first-sale doctrine, meaning, by their skewed logic, that it only applies to goods physically made in the U.S.
Kirtsaeng’s case does not end here, however; The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the case on Oct. 29.
Well, thanks to a case currently being reviewed by The Supreme Court, reselling goods that you bought might soon be considered illegal. That sounds absolutely ridiculous, right? How is that even possible when you already paid for it fair and square? Well, according to this absurd and alarming article , it's entirely possible. Take a quick look at it.
The basic gist of this story is about a young man named Supap Kirtsaeng who came from Thailand in 1997 to attend college in the good old U.S. of A. When he discovered that his text books, made by a company named John Wiley & Sons, were significantly cheaper to buy in his home country, he asked his family to buy copies for him and send them over here. After he was done with them, he resold them on eBay and somehow managed to make roughly 1.2 million dollars. John Wiley & Sons, after hearing about this and probably pretty burned that a college kid had managed to outsmart them, subsequently sued him for copyright infringement. This is the money-grubbing, legal-action-happy kind of thing that would happen only in America.
Kirtsaeng countered the case with the first-sale doctrine, which up until this point, protected and allowed buyers to resell goods that they had legally purchased without the permission of the original copyright holder. This included all goods, ranging from DVDs to books to artwork and anything in between. However, in 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court’s ruling that anything that was manufactured overseas is not subject to the first-sale doctrine, meaning, by their skewed logic, that it only applies to goods physically made in the U.S.
Kirtsaeng’s case does not end here, however; The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the case on Oct. 29.
Mario, what are YOU so happy about?!
In the meantime, let’s talk about how this affects you as a storage hunter, and the country as a whole. John Wiley & Sons miraculously win this case; this could mean some serious changes are in store for the resale business. Changing this law would mean you could not even simply sell your car, even if it was manufactured by an American company. Do you know how many foreign made parts are in that thing?
Hey, are you trying to sell at a flea market? Be careful, I heard the police are confiscating non-American made goods. Hey storage hunter, did you find a Nintendo DS in a storage locker? Sorry, you can’t sell that unless you get permission from Nintendo…they’re a Japanese company, after all. In fact, using this logic, the auctioneer probably can’t hold a storage auction without getting permission from every single foreign copyright holder for every single item in this locker!
Hey, are you trying to sell at a flea market? Be careful, I heard the police are confiscating non-American made goods. Hey storage hunter, did you find a Nintendo DS in a storage locker? Sorry, you can’t sell that unless you get permission from Nintendo…they’re a Japanese company, after all. In fact, using this logic, the auctioneer probably can’t hold a storage auction without getting permission from every single foreign copyright holder for every single item in this locker!
The only man who can save us.
Does that not sound like the most ridiculous joke you’ve ever heard? We might as well be living in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie where the entire world has fallen into poverty except for Big Brother, who laughs and watches us starving and killing each other just to survive. And if that happens, I expect to Arnold Schwarzenegger to come in, guns blazing, and save us all from our imminent doom. Give me a break!
Imagine: companies like Goodwill would probably go out of business. Half of the stuff you donate couldn't be sold or purchased without permission from the copyright holders. Nobody would care enough to donate their goods or even hold a tag sale…getting a copyright to sell a Furby sounds like too much work. So instead, we start throwing everything out; perfectly good items that we no longer need go in the trash, piling up on street corners, landfills, sewers, backyards—everywhere. Resale, as well as the concept of recycling, becomes obsolete, and sooner than later we’ll be living in mountains of garbage that we can’t resell and won’t bother to reuse.
Now obviously, this is an extreme worst case scenario, but what I’m trying to illustrate is just how ridiculous this is, and the fact that we need resale. So many Americans depend on secondhand goods, whether they make a living off of selling them, or they’re able to live more comfortably by buying them at reduced prices. And this is exactly why I think this case doesn't stand a chance.
So storage hunters, get out there and exercise your rights to resell goods! Help your fellow Americans live better lives by saving them some money. Help the environment and the world we all share by keeping junk out of landfills. And help yourself by knowing your rights and standing up for them!
Imagine: companies like Goodwill would probably go out of business. Half of the stuff you donate couldn't be sold or purchased without permission from the copyright holders. Nobody would care enough to donate their goods or even hold a tag sale…getting a copyright to sell a Furby sounds like too much work. So instead, we start throwing everything out; perfectly good items that we no longer need go in the trash, piling up on street corners, landfills, sewers, backyards—everywhere. Resale, as well as the concept of recycling, becomes obsolete, and sooner than later we’ll be living in mountains of garbage that we can’t resell and won’t bother to reuse.
Now obviously, this is an extreme worst case scenario, but what I’m trying to illustrate is just how ridiculous this is, and the fact that we need resale. So many Americans depend on secondhand goods, whether they make a living off of selling them, or they’re able to live more comfortably by buying them at reduced prices. And this is exactly why I think this case doesn't stand a chance.
So storage hunters, get out there and exercise your rights to resell goods! Help your fellow Americans live better lives by saving them some money. Help the environment and the world we all share by keeping junk out of landfills. And help yourself by knowing your rights and standing up for them!
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