How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from reselling just about anything • Hacker News Board

Re: How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from reselling just about anything

#61

Post by hn_is_vile » Tue, Oct 30, 2012, 8:50 AM UTC

mseebach wrote: post #35

danparsonson wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Because the law says so. I'm all for changing the law, but that's just not what this case is about.

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?

Re: How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from reselling just about anything

#62

Post by Zak » Tue, Oct 30, 2012, 9:52 AM UTC

Dylan16807 wrote: post #59

mindslight wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except then things like warranties get tied to whether you've customized the software on the device. And never mind the herd of people scared into not taking control of their device ("jailbreaking") by nebulous threats of virii or future manufacturer retribution.

The solution then is to ban oppressive warranty terms. Only abusive/negligent care should void warranties like that.

That's more or less already the case:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_...

Re: How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from reselling just about anything

#63

Post by AutoCorrect » Tue, Oct 30, 2012, 2:21 PM UTC

TheAmazingIdiot wrote: post #58

belorn wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For areas like DRM and region locking, the answer is quite simple. Actually enforce ownership and property law for consumers. If I buy a car, I should be able to decide what I want to do with it. Where I want to drive. Who I allow in it. Where I want to buy gas. Where I want to repair it. Where I want to buy parts. If I want to sell it. and so on and so on. Once sold, the new owner should have complete control, and a…

I very much agree with this sentiment. The whole PS3 removal of otherOS is a plain "computer crimes" law. Charge Sony with 1 count per device. Nice criminal case there. Next we have Monsanto, who runs around finding seeds contaminated with roundup resistance. If you, a farmer, try to save seed, you will get bit by this. Since Monsanto argues it's their patent and their seed, I say we agree with them. And when their p…

or even criminal negligence, since their seed contaminated your crop, then the contamination was used in a shakedown.

Re: How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from reselling just about anything

#64

Post by AutoCorrect » Tue, Oct 30, 2012, 2:24 PM UTC

ubernostrum wrote: post #29

mseebach wrote: post #4

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a " ... purchased outside the US" missing from the title of the piece? The article says: "... seeking to knock out the "first sale" doctrine on goods made abroad" (emphasis mine) - surely a product made abroad, but sold in the US by an authorized importer/reseller will still be subject to first sale? And it would still be legal for students to buy books for themselves abroad?…

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 pr…

>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?

Re: How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from reselling just about anything

#65

Post by TheAmazingIdiot » Wed, Oct 31, 2012, 5:09 PM UTC

AutoCorrect wrote: post #63

TheAmazingIdiot wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much agree with this sentiment. The whole PS3 removal of otherOS is a plain "computer crimes" law. Charge Sony with 1 count per device. Nice criminal case there. Next we have Monsanto, who runs around finding seeds contaminated with roundup resistance. If you, a farmer, try to save seed, you will get bit by this. Since Monsanto argues it's their patent and their seed, I say we agree with them. And when their p…

or even criminal negligence, since their seed contaminated your crop, then the contamination was used in a shakedown.

I'm more akin going for cumulative fines and/or jailtime for the executive board.

Trespassing in Indiana can be fined up to $1000 and 6 month jail sentence. Each of these seeds are "their" property. Lets say that a contaminated field is 500,000 seeds. $1000 per seed is $500 Million.

Of course, if Monsanto abandons their "property", or lays no claim to it, there wouldn't be a judgement on trespassing.