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Page Number: 43.0

2 

KIRTSAENG v. JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. 

GINSBURG, J., dissenting 

from  the  Court’s  embrace  of  “international  exhaustion,” 
and  would  affirm  the  sound  judgment  of  the  Court  of
Appeals. 

I 
Because economic conditions and demand for particular
goods  vary  across  the  globe,  copyright  owners  have  a
financial  incentive  to  charge  different  prices  for  copies  of 
their  works  in  different  geographic  regions.    Their  ability 
to engage in such price discrimination, however, is under-
mined  if  arbitrageurs  are  permitted  to  import  copies 
from low-price regions and sell them in high-price regions.
The  question  in  this  case  is  whether  the  unauthorized 
importation  of  foreign-made  copies  constitutes  copyright
infringement under U. S. law.

To answer this question, one must examine three provi­
sions  of  Title  17  of  the  U. S.  Code:  §§106(3),  109(a),  and 
602(a)(1).  Section 106 sets forth the “exclusive rights” of a
copyright  owner,  including  the  right  “to  distribute  copies 
or  phonorecords  of  the  copyrighted  work  to  the  public  by 
sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or
lending.”  §106(3).  This  distribution  right  is  limited  by 
§109(a),  which  provides:  “Notwithstanding  the  provisions
of section 106(3), the owner of a particular copy or phono- 
record  lawfully  made  under  this  title  . . .  is  entitled, 
without  the  authority  of  the  copyright  owner,  to  sell  or 
otherwise  dispose  of  the  possession  of  that  copy  or 
phonorecord.”  Section  109(a)  codifies  the  “first  sale  doc­
trine,”  a  doctrine  articulated  in  Bobbs-Merrill  Co.  v. 
Straus,  210  U. S.  339,  349–351  (1908),  which  held  that  a 
copyright  owner  could  not  control  the  price  at  which  re­
tailers  sold  lawfully  purchased  copies  of  its  work.    The 
first  sale  doctrine  recognizes  that  a  copyright  owner 
should not be permitted to exercise perpetual control over 
the distribution of copies of a copyrighted work.  At some 
point—ordinarily  the  time  of  the  first  commercial  sale—