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# Will the Supremes Make It Illegal to Resell Your Stuff?
October 11 2012
Written by Natasha Lennard.
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TOP COURT IS MESSING WITH YOUR GARAGE SALE - If you buy an iPod or a phone, a book or a DVD, it’s currently legal to resell it, as thousands of eBay and Craigslist posts attest.
However, as Jennifer Waters at [**MarketWatch**](http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/story/print?guid=AEC86DBA-0DA1-11E2-AC22-002128049AD6) reports, a little-known case “tucked into the US Supreme Court’s agenda this fall could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother’s antique furniture to your iPhone 4.”
Under current law — on the books since 1908 — copyright holders only have control over the first sale, so while I cannot take iPhones straight off the factory line and sell them, I am able to sell a device that I first bought from a retailer.
This, Waters reports, is being challenged:
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. (The rest of Lennard’s piece … including how Craig’s List and eBay would be affected …[ **here.**](http://www.salon.com/2012/10/08/will_scotus_make_it_illegal_to_resell_your_stuff/))
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 82
Pub: Oct 12, 2012
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