The U.S. Supreme Court held that the “first sale” doctrine applies to copies of copyrighted material originally sold outside of the United States and then resold here.  The 6-3 majority opinion held that the “first sale” doctrine set forth in 17 U.S.C. Sec. 109(a) has no geographic limitation.  Thus, the resale in the United States of used textbooks originally sold outside of the United States was allowable under Sec. 109(a).  The U.S. Supreme Court opinion can be found here.  Kirtsaeng v John Wiley