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

Cite as:  568 U. S. ____ (2013) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

States),  aff ’d  by  an  equally  divided  court,  562  U. S.  ___ 
(2010),  and  Sebastian  Int’l,  Inc.  v.  Consumer  Contacts 
(PTY) Ltd., 847 F. 2d 1093, 1098, n. 1 (CA3 1988) (limita­
tion  of  the  first  sale  doctrine  to  copies  made  within  the 
United States “does not fit comfortably within the scheme
of the Copyright Act”). 

II 

We  must  decide  whether  the  words  “lawfully  made 
under  this  title”  restrict  the  scope  of  §109(a)’s  “first  sale” 
doctrine  geographically.    The  Second  Circuit,  the  Ninth 
Circuit,  Wiley,  and  the  Solicitor  General  (as  amicus)  all
read those words as imposing a form of geographical limi­
tation.  The  Second  Circuit  held  that  they  limit  the  “first
sale”  doctrine  to  particular  copies  “made  in  territories  in 
which  the  Copyright  Act  is  law,”  which  (the  Circuit  says) 
are copies “manufactured domestically,” not “outside of the
United  States.”    654  F. 3d,  at  221–222  (emphasis  added). 
Wiley  agrees  that  those  five  words  limit  the  “first  sale” 
doctrine “to copies made in conformance with the [United 
States]  Copyright  Act  where  the  Copyright  Act  is  appli­
cable,” which (Wiley says) means it does not apply to copies 
made “outside the United States” and at least not to “for­
eign  production  of  a  copy  for  distribution  exclusively
abroad.”  Brief  for  Respondent  15–16.  Similarly,  the
Solicitor General says that those five words limit the “first
sale”  doctrine’s  applicability  to  copies  “ ‘made  subject  to
and  in  compliance  with  [the  Copyright  Act],’ ”  which  (the
Solicitor  General  says)  are  copies  “made  in  the  United
States.”  Brief  for  United  States  as  Amicus  Curiae  5 
(hereinafter  Brief  for  United  States)  (emphasis  added).
And the Ninth Circuit has held that those words limit the 
“first  sale”  doctrine’s  applicability  (1)  to  copies  lawfully 
made in the United States, and (2) to copies lawfully made 
outside  the  United  States  but  initially  sold  in  the  United 
States  with  the  copyright  owner’s  permission.    Denbicare