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Page Number: 10

6 

KIRTSAENG v. JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. 

Opinion of the Court 

(SDNY),  Doc.  14,  p. 3.    Thus,  in  his  view,  §109(a)’s  “first
sale” doctrine permitted him to resell or otherwise dispose
of the books without the copyright owner’s further permis­
sion.  Id., at 2–3. 

The District Court held that Kirtsaeng could not assert
the  “first  sale”  defense  because,  in  its  view,  that  doctrine 
does  not  apply  to  “foreign-manufactured  goods”  (even  if 
made abroad with the copyright owner’s permission).  App. 
to Pet. for Cert. 72a.  The jury then found that Kirtsaeng
had  willfully  infringed  Wiley’s  American  copyrights  by 
selling and importing without authorization copies of eight 
of  Wiley’s  copyrighted  titles.    And  it  assessed  statutory 
damages  of  $600,000  ($75,000  per  work).    654  F. 3d,  at 
215. 

On  appeal,  a  split  panel  of  the  Second  Circuit  agreed
with  the  District  Court.  Id.,  at  222.  It  pointed  out  that
§109(a)’s “first sale” doctrine applies only to “the owner of 
a particular copy . . . lawfully made under this title.”  Id., 
at 218–219 (emphasis added).  And, in the majority’s view,
this language means that the “first sale” doctrine does not 
apply  to  copies  of  American  copyrighted  works  manufac­
tured abroad.  Id., at 221.  A dissenting judge thought that
the words “lawfully made under this title” do not refer “to 
a  place  of  manufacture”  but  rather  “focu[s]  on  whether  a 
particular  copy  was  manufactured  lawfully  under”  Amer- 
ica’s  copyright  statute,  and  that  “the  lawfulness  of  the 
manufacture of a particular copy should be judged by U. S.
copyright law.”  Id., at 226 (opinion of Murtha, J.).

We  granted  Kirtsaeng’s  petition  for  certiorari  to  con- 
sider  this  question  in  light  of  different  views  among  the
Circuits.  Compare  id.,  at  221  (case  below)  (“first  sale” 
doctrine does not apply to copies manufactured outside the
United  States),  with  Omega  S.  A.  v.  Costco  Wholesale 
Corp., 541 F. 3d 982, 986 (CA9 2008) (“first sale” doctrine
applies  to  copies  manufactured  outside  the  United  States
only  if  an  authorized  first  sale  occurs  within  the  United