Forget fiscal stimulus or even quantitative easing, imagine the ‘boom’ to the economy if it is suddenly illegal to sell used products?
The Supreme Court will rule this fall on whether it is legal to resell any product without the consent of the original copyright holder.
Welcome to the totalitarian, socialistic state known as the USSA.
It could become “illegal” to resell your iPhone 4, car or family antiques
Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother’s antique furniture to your iPhone 4.
At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products.
Under the doctrine, which the Supreme Court has recognized since 1908, you can resell your stuff without worry because the copyright holder only had control over the first sale.
If the Supreme Court upholds the appellate court ruling, look for SWAT team raids on Grandma’s garage sale:
if the Supreme Court upholds an appellate court ruling, it would mean that the copyright holders of anything you own that has been made in China, Japan or Europe, for example, would have to give you permission to sell it.
“It means that it’s harder for consumers to buy used products and harder for them to sell them,” said Jonathan Band, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association for Research Libraries. “This has huge consumer impact on all consumer groups.”
Another likely result is that it would hit you financially because the copyright holder would now want a piece of that sale.
It appears that the slippery slope of totalitarianism is about to get a little steeper.
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Goodbye Craigslist. What about silver coinage, would the US mint have to give you permission to sell your “USED” coins? I think the only thing left is air……will we have to swipe a card to breathe? Geeeeezus! Tyranny is a bitch! It’s all good because after the revolution, the controllers will all be in jail. As long as we keep taking it, they will keep dishing it out. Look around the world at the rebellion, it’s coming soon to a theater near you. Americans will eventually kick ass but first they have to get off of their own asses.
There is still hope for Craigslist because maybe the site will become a barter website. People won’t be selling their items with dollars, but with other goods and services. These days, there are only ridiculous laws that are passing while the good ones don’t.
I think this is just a ploy for a desperate government to increase revenues. I think they will try to act like a “non-partial intermediary” and implement some kind of tax on used goods. One such route could be taxing online personal sales (ie. tax on Paypal transactions).
This particular issue doesn’t bother me much though because the second-hand market is massive and I highly doubt Big Brother will be able to control it (think, they can’t even effectively curb copy-write offenders).
Interesting… of course it is a conservative court (bowing to their corporate masters) that would take these rights away.
And… I would agree the young should be listened to… how about listening to a “consensus” rather than cherry-picking the minority conservative view.
Very emotional video that is totally and completely useless.
There was a candidate in this primary season that was ALL those things the kids want….his name was Ron Paul. Well, we know what happened to him. The two party system is at it’s very base level totally and completely corrupted and malignant. There is no vote that matters since both choices are just as bad as the other. Money has corrupted everyone that has any power in this country and yes, even the common man. Principles mean nothing. The ONLY vote we have is our pocket book and that is being summarily destroyed by the crooks on the hill, the FED, the too big to fail banks and corporations, and now by these little chips of our liberty that are being hacked away by our bought-and-paid-for justice system.
So, if the kids desire the future they are describing in the video, then they should start by learning to use a firearm. how to grow food, a skill to make you indispensable, the law as it was INTENDED by the Constitution and what REAL money is.
Funny I just read this on Marketwatch. This is a stupid law. The one positive I could get from it was that it would force Americans to buy American made products. Helping to improve our economy and job market instead of helping another country with theirs.
The men (and woman) in black will likely do the right thing on this case. Copyright law has been consistent on this issue. There never has been a concept of resale royalties in operation, for example. And note too that we’re dealing with copyright, not trademark or patent laws so sale of stuff in general like an iphone is not at issue. It’s just copyright protected “stuff” that is up for debate.
The oligarchy’s vested interest is in alignment with the teenager wishing to sell unwanted CDs. Can you imagine the stink that would happen if it suddenly was illegal to sell that $50 million Van Gough that David Rockefeller bought at auction? Yeah, right…
Nope, the judicial system isn’t likely going to fail on this issue… They’re too busy screwing up other stuff
But per usual, we’re always going to have to fight 1,001 battles for liberty, this being no exception.
This BS is real. Most with an eBay account have been informed of this and there is a petition in place to voice your extreme opposition to such totalitarian crap. Please, everyone, go to this link and sign the petition. Thanks.
http://www.ebaymainstreet.com/news-events/citizens-for-ownership-rights-collecting-petition-signatures?utm_campaign=recruiting&utm_source=seller-email-october-2012&utm_medium=seller-email
Here’s an odd thought. If people barter a phone for a good or service, a copywrited item XX for bitcoins or precious metals, would that be a ‘sale’ All of this sounds like BS to me. Can you imagine tryng to police this. Even the USSR operated quite nicely with the farmers market and private sales of personal and consumer goods. Funnily enough,many of these goods were bootlegged books, music and clothing that never saw a penny of royalties go to the hands of the artists. I recall hearing that the artists were very happy to see their works being transferred and sold to an unfree people to promote the cause of human liberty and freedom It is totally ironic that these consumer goods were part of what helped erode the underpinnings of a totalitarian regime while our country, dedicated to freedom of speech, life,liberty and pursuit of happiness is trying to reign down some draconian Iron Curtain of restrictions on USED STUFF Not new stuff, not bootlegged stuff, not some secret treasures in grannies attic, USED STUFF. What a psycho upside down world we live in.
Think how this would hurt companies like IBM and MicroSoft. If suddenly, you can’t even sell your computer because it has copyrighted information in it… Very quickly, computers would be available that were purely Open Source. People would very quickly switch over and embrace Open Source and shun anything that had copyrights.
If the wrong decision gets made, I think you could expect the 800 lb. giants to very quickly proclaim “It is ok to resell stuff with our copyright as long as it was bought legitimately.” Because if they didn’t do that, after the initial sales surge, people wouldn’t want their stuff any more.
AGXIIK, we are fast becoming like the Soviet Union was. People are harassed by the police & TSA for taking photographs (even though this is protected by the Constitution. Govt. cameras are everywhere spying on you. You get grilled whenever you cross the US border.
The reason why they want to outlaw reselling things is to elimate cash-transactions – which can not be tracked, trended, and taxed. and they will be coming for your guns, next.
They pass this and people will revolt and ignore it. First time a few people go to jail over it you will see riots. They aren’t totally stupid and won’t step over that line just yet.
There is still the November 2012 elections left so you Americans still have the chances to vote for Ron Paul to avoid totalitarianism. Almost no one is going to respect this law if it passes since it will affect their liberties to choose just like people not respecting the traffic signals.