First-Sale Doctrine
By Jeff Grillo, Associate Director for Technical Services
Have you ever purchased a used book? Perhaps you bought a casebook for a class online via amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. Maybe you visited your local used book store. Have you ever sold an old textbook that you no longer needed? Maybe you listed it online or sold it back to the campus bookstore. Biddle Law Library often purchases used books. The used book market has helped the library to remain fiscally responsible, and still meet the research needs of the Penn Law community.
Now here is a tougher question. Are you familiar with the first-sale doctrine? This doctrine is sometimes referred to as the "right of first sale." Copyright law protects the rights of individuals and businesses that want to sell books that they have already purchased. In other words, there is no copyright infringement when a person or business resells a book that they previously purchased. At that point, the first-sale doctrine kicks in.
