On January 22nd, the Congressional Internet Caucus held its annual State of the Net Conference in Washington DC.  The conference included a session entitled “First Sale and No Resale.”  The session was largely focused on the upcoming Supreme Court case Wiley v. Kirtsaeng, which involves an eBay seller that was sued for selling legitimate, authentic international textbooks.  eBay Inc.’s Tod Cohen, Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, spoke at the session, advocating that open markets where buyers and sellers can trade in legitimate and authentic goods are good for consumers and businesses.  Mr. Kirtsaeng paid for the authentic textbooks he bought, and therefore he should be able to resell them, lend them, or give them away. 

Tod proposed a high level question at the outset of his comments, “We have to decide if we want to live in an ownership world or a licensing world?”  Consumers and businesses that buy goods expect that they own the goods they pay for, and that they are not subject to all kinds of restrictions after the fact.  Tod added that ownership rights should apply wherever the books may have been manufactured.  He concluded that the freedom to buy and sell goods benefits society and that eBay will work to protect ownership rights.   

The issue of ownership rights will be coming to the forefront, as the Supreme Court is expected to decide the Wiley v. Kirtsaeng case soon.  eBay recently joined the Owners Rights Initiative – a coalition of organizations that have organized around the idea of “if you bought it, you own it.”  Moreover, the public interest group Citizens for Ownership Rights is working throughout the Internet community to help protect ownership rights for all.