Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/11-697_d1o2.pdf
Page Number: 1.0

(Slip Opinion) 

OCTOBER  TERM,  2012 

1 

Syllabus 

NOTE:  Where  it  is  feasible,  a  syllabus  (headnote)  will  be  released,  as  is
being  done  in  connection  with  this  case,  at  the  time  the  opinion  is  issued.
The  syllabus  constitutes  no  part  of  the  opinion  of  the  Court  but  has  been
prepared  by  the  Reporter  of  Decisions  for  the  convenience  of  the  reader. 
See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

Syllabus 

KIRTSAENG, DBA BLUECHRISTINE99 v. JOHN WILEY 
& SONS, INC. 

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR 
THE SECOND CIRCUIT 

No. 11–697.  Argued October 29, 2012—Decided March 19, 2013 

The  “exclusive  rights”  that  a  copyright  owner  has  “to  distribute  copies
. . . of [a] copyrighted work,” 17 U. S. C. §106(3), are qualified by the
application  of  several  limitations  set  out  in  §§107  through  122,  in-
cluding the “first sale” doctrine, which provides that “the owner of a 
particular  copy  or  phonorecord  lawfully  made  under  this  title  . . .  is
entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or oth-
erwise dispose of the possession of that copy or phonorecord,” §109(a).
Importing a copy made abroad without the copyright owner’s permis-
sion  is  an  infringement  of  §106(3).    See  §602(a)(1).    In  Quality  King 
Distributors,  Inc.  v.  L’anza  Research  Int’l,  Inc.,  523  U. S.  135,  145, 
this Court held that §602(a)(1)’s reference to §106(3) incorporates the
§§107  through  122  limitations,  including  §109’s  “first  sale”  doctrine. 
However, the copy in Quality King was initially manufactured in the
United States and then sent abroad and sold. 

Respondent,  John  Wiley  &  Sons,  Inc.,  an  academic  textbook  pub-
lisher,  often  assigns  to  its  wholly  owned  foreign  subsidiary  (Wiley
Asia) rights to publish, print, and sell foreign editions of Wiley’s Eng-
lish  language  textbooks  abroad.    Wiley  Asia’s  books  state  that  they 
are  not  to  be  taken  (without  permission)  into  the  United  States.
When petitioner Kirtsaeng moved from Thailand to the United States
to study mathematics, he asked friends and family to buy foreign edi-
tion English-language textbooks in Thai book shops, where they sold 
at low prices, and to mail them to him in the United States.  He then 
sold  the  books,  reimbursed  his  family  and  friends,  and  kept  the 
profit.

Wiley  filed  suit,  claiming  that  Kirtsaeng’s  unauthorized  importa-
tion  and  resale  of  its  books  was  an  infringement  of  Wiley’s  §106(3)