The millions of Americans who sell used items on eBay and at garage sales, flea markets or church raffles got a big victory Tuesday in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court ruled that copyrighted items made overseas—and that includes not only books but also CDs, DVDs, computers, watches and anything else with copyrighted material in it—are covered by a federal law that says a person who buys such a product is free to turn around and sell it.
The ruling came in a case involving Supap Kirtsaeng, a student from Thailand who was surprised by the high cost of academic textbooks when he arrived in the U.S. to attend college. He asked his parents to search bookstores back home and send him much cheaper English language versions—published overseas and sold at a fraction of the price—of the same texts.