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> If the ruling had gone the other way, a lot of manufacturing would have moved out of the USA as the manufacturers would have had a lot more control over resal
by throwawaykf05 12y ago
> If the ruling had gone the other way, a lot of manufacturing would have moved out of the USA as the manufacturers would have had a lot more control over resale.
This is a gross overstatement. Most manufacturing does not involve copyright and so this ruling would have no bearing on that at all. The simplest way I can put this from my non-lawyer understanding is, "copyright law does not trump first sale doctrine".
- LordKano 12y agoI'm sorry but this ruling is one of the things that establishes that. Had this ruling gone the other way, copyright would trump first sale doctrine.
- throwawaykf05 12y agoYes, I meant to say "The simplest way I can put this ruling from my non-lawyer understanding is..."
- michaelt 12y agoMost manufacturing does not involve copyright Microchip layouts and printed circuit board designs are usually copyrighted. And you could easily mould some copyrightable text onto a pair of headphones or a sandwich box if you wanted to.