4 ms·
Great analysis... so would you say this is generalizable to region coding issues? Because first-sale doctrine should protect my ability to buy a DVD in China a
by Shinkei 14y ago
Great analysis... so would you say this is generalizable to region coding issues? Because first-sale doctrine should protect my ability to buy a DVD in China and use it/sell it in the US. Would region-free players also be protected?
- antiterra 14y agoYou've gone a bit too far with the scope. This is about legitimately produced physical manifestations of works protected under copyright. Your average toaster is likely not protected by copyright, but if the toaster company engraves a poem onto the side, suddenly it may be. It's also only about the exhaustion of the distribution right of the specific item that was purchased. It has nothing to do with a right to copy or circumvent access/copy protection etc. Therefore, region free players have nothing to do with this whatsoever, unless, perhaps, they have a copyrighted work painted on them or something. As for DVDs: Theoretically, if you managed to find a legitimately produced DVD in China (made with the rights holder's permission) you could bring it back to the US and sell it. Whether or not you can legally play that DVD in the US on any particular player is an entirely different and more involved question involving a bunch of DMCA caselaw.