Just WOW; Supreme Court upholds first-sale doctrine in textbook resale case

[Babel_17]

30. Interesting, not always a clear case imo.

I can think of a hypothetical that might make people think twice.

Suppose I have to pay an author 1,000,000 dollars for his book.

Printing, etc., costs another 200,000 dollars

I project I can sell 100,000 copies at an average price of 15 dollars so I forge ahead.

But my plan is to sell the book in the US and other developed countries for 20 dollars a piece and in countries with low standards of living I would sell it for just over cost.

I'm thrilled when overseas orders pile up in higher than expected numbers but I'm dismayed when the books I shipped overseas come back to the US for sale. I'm dismayed because they are being sold cheaper than I am selling them.

There goes my pricing model.

As a publisher I will have to offer the author less money next time and/or strictly limit sales to less fortunate countries.
One could say I did a bad job of setting up distribution. But then again, everything has its costs. Also, in the actual case of this man, we aren't talking about students reselling books, but rather an individual injecting himself into the distribution channel, yes?

I'm a strong supporter of consumer's rights. If an individual buys a book they rightly have an expectation to be able to freely dispose of it at any time. And I'm not amused at how students have to buy books by their teachers. This court case though, I'm not so certain of what is what.