Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/11-697_d1o2.pdf
Page Number: 19

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

15 

Opinion of the Court 

The  “equal  treatment”  principle,  however,  is  difficult 
to  square  with  a  geographical  interpretation  of  the  “first 
sale”  clause  that  would  grant  the  holder  of  an  American
copyright  (perhaps  a  foreign  national,  see  supra,  at  10) 
permanent  control  over  the  American  distribution  chain
(sales,  resales,  gifts,  and  other  distribution)  in  respect  to
copies  printed  abroad  but  not  in  respect  to  copies  printed 
in America.  And it is particularly difficult to believe that 
Congress would have sought this unequal treatment while
saying nothing about it and while, in a related clause (the
manufacturing  phase-out),  seeking  the  opposite  kind  of 
policy goal.  Cf. Golan v. Holder, 565 U. S. ___, ___ (2012) 
(slip  op.,  at  30)  (Congress  has  moved  from  a  copyright 
regime that, prior to 1891, entirely excluded foreign works
from  U. S.  copyright  protection  to  a  regime  that  now  “en­
sure[s]  that  most  works,  whether  foreign  or  domestic, 
would  be  governed  by  the  same  legal  regime”  (emphasis
added)).

Finally,  we  normally  presume  that  the  words  “lawfully 
made under this title” carry the same meaning when they
appear  in  different  but  related  sections.  Department  of 
Revenue  of  Ore.  v.  ACF  Industries,  Inc.,  510  U. S.  332, 
342 (1994).  But doing so here produces surprising conse­
quences.  Consider: 

(1)  Section  109(c)  says  that,  despite  the  copyright  own­
er’s  exclusive  right  “to  display”  a  copyrighted  work
(provided in §106(5)), the owner of a particular copy “law- 
fully made under this title” may publicly display it with­
out  further  authorization.    To  interpret  these  words 
geographically  would  mean  that  one  who  buys  a  copy­
righted work of art, a poster, or even a bumper sticker,
in  Canada,  in  Europe,  in  Asia,  could  not  display 
it  in  America  without  the  copyright  owner’s  further
authorization.