Digital Directions: Rethinking the Monolith
Kirtsaeng realized that he had an opportunity to arbitrage the international pricing discrepancy of the same textbook. He was able to profit from this arbitrage opportunity, to the tune of $1.2 million. Not surprisingly, Wiley took him to court in 2008.
Kirtsaeng V. Wiley was put to rest on March 19, 2013, with a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, which found in favor of Kirtsaeng. The decision of the Court was based upon the first sale doctrine of the U.S. copyright law. The first sale doctrine addresses the rights of distributors of physical copies of copyrighted works, stating that, once a physical copy is sold, the copyright owner no longer has a claim in the specific material object in which the copyrighted work is embodied, and that the buyer of the copy can then dispose of it as he or she sees fit, including reselling it. If that content is protected under copyright, the buyer cannot create additional copies of the book, but the buyer can sell their copy. On that basis, Kirtsaeng had the right to resell the copies he purchased, even if he purchased them in Thailand.