Problems with DVD

[Michael E Kerpan Jr]

david mankins wrote:

>Some Japanese publishers are beginning to restrict what they sell for
>export (particularly to the United States) in hopes that a US
>publisher will license the material.  A number of popular bilingual
>editions of manga have been restricted this way, because the manga are
>seen as competing with the US licensed product.
>
This attempt to restrict re-sellers from selling to others is possibly 
illegal in its own right.  The "first sale doctrine" which exists in the 
US and in most other countries provides that once the an authorized copy 
of a  copyrighted has been legally sold, attempts to restrict re-sale by 
the buyer are not permissible.  If a company is a wholesale distributor 
(in essence an agent of the initial seller), it's freedom of action can 
probably be curtailed legitimately, but once an item makes it into the 
retail market, restraints are unenforceable. Unless Japan has never 
recognized the "first sale doctrine", the described behavior is very 
likely illegitimate.  Whether it is worth initiating  (or threatening) 
legal proceedings is, perhaps, another question.

MIchael Kerpan
(once upon a time, long long ago, a member of the ABA's Copyright 
Subcommittee)