3 ms·

You're quite right. I've been far from happy with the way this case has been covered in the tech press; the sky is not falling, you can still resell your iPod

You're quite right. I've been far from happy with the way this case has been covered in the tech press; the sky is not falling, you can still resell your iPod when you're done with it. What you can't do is start a side business where you become a company's competitor by finding another country where prices are low enough that you can buy bulk and import into the US for less than the US price. Which should surprise practically nobody, so I guess that's why everybody is rushing to sensationalize the hell out of this. (and the fact that a sensationalized version of this appears and gets highly upvoted on HN about once a week is a depressing indicator of not just the press, but the state of the community they're feeding)

danparsonson 14y ago
> What you can't do is start a side business where you become a company's competitor by finding another country where prices are low enough that you can buy bulk and import into the US for less than the US price Why not? That's the free market economy at work isn't it? How is this different to off-shoring production and supply sourcing to save money?
- mseebach 14y ago
  Because the law says so. I'm all for changing the law, but that's just not what this case is about.
  - hn_is_vile 14y ago
    You will need to cite which law says so. If a business decides to import books published in Thailand by Thai publishers into the US, does the law prevent them from doing so? And if it does, could not the importer take the US to the WTO for a ruling that this was a trade barrier? What if an American living in Thailand purchased books in the US, imported them into Thailand and sold them at a profit? Would that also be illegal under this law?
AutoCorrect 14y ago
>Which should surprise practically nobody Why? You mean corporations can arbitrage production and employment costs, and we can't arbitrage product purchase costs is logical?

danparsonson 14y ago

> What you can't do is start a side business where you become a company's competitor by finding another country where prices are low enough that you can buy bulk and import into the US for less than the US price Why not? That's the free market economy at work isn't it? How is this different to off-shoring production and supply sourcing to save money?

mseebach 14y ago
Because the law says so. I'm all for changing the law, but that's just not what this case is about.
- hn_is_vile 14y ago
  You will need to cite which law says so. If a business decides to import books published in Thailand by Thai publishers into the US, does the law prevent them from doing so? And if it does, could not the importer take the US to the WTO for a ruling that this was a trade barrier? What if an American living in Thailand purchased books in the US, imported them into Thailand and sold them at a profit? Would that also be illegal under this law?

AutoCorrect 14y ago

>Which should surprise practically nobody Why? You mean corporations can arbitrage production and employment costs, and we can't arbitrage product purchase costs is logical?