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4 

KIRTSAENG v. JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. 

Opinion of the Court 

permissions—to  the  point  that  we  can,  for  present  pur­
poses,  refer  to  Wiley  as  the  relevant  American  copyright 
owner.  See  654  F. 3d  210,  213,  n. 6  (CA2  2011).    Wiley
often assigns to its wholly owned foreign subsidiary, John 
Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd., rights to publish, print, and 
sell  Wiley’s  English  language  textbooks  abroad.    App.  to
Pet. for Cert. 47a–48a.  Each copy of a Wiley Asia foreign 
edition will likely contain language making clear that the 
copy is to be sold only in a particular country or geograph­
ical region outside the United States.  654 F. 3d, at 213. 

For  example,  a  copy  of  Wiley’s  American  edition  says, 
“Copyright  ©  2008  John  Wiley  &  Sons,  Inc.    All  rights
reserved.  . . .  Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America.” 
J.  Walker,  Fundamentals  of  Physics,  p.  vi  (8th  ed.  2008).
A copy of Wiley Asia’s Asian edition of that book says: 

“Copyright  ©  2008  John  Wiley  &  Sons  (Asia)  Pte
Ltd[.]  All rights reserved.  This book is authorized for 
sale in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East only 
and may be not exported out of these territories.  Ex­
portation  from  or  importation  of  this  book  to  another
region without the Publisher’s authorization is illegal
and is a violation of the Publisher’s rights.  The Pub­
lisher  may  take  legal  action  to  enforce  its  rights. . . .  
Printed in Asia.”  J. Walker, Fundamentals of Physics, 
p. vi (8th ed. 2008 Wiley Int’l Student ed.). 

Both the foreign and the American copies say: 

“No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored 
in  a  retrieval  system,  or  transmitted  in  any  form  or
by any means . . . except as permitted under Sections
107 or 108  of the 1976 United  States Copyright Act.” 
Compare, e.g., ibid. (Int’l ed.), with Walker, supra, at 
vi (American ed.). 

The  upshot  is  that  there  are  two  essentially  equivalent 

versions  of  a  Wiley  textbook,  654  F. 3d,  at  213,  each  ver­