Problems with DVD

[david mankins]

   Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 17:36:25 -0500
   From: Michael E Kerpan Jr <kerpan at attglobal.net>
   
   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.
   
I'm sure there is a space for a potentially thriving resale market for
these books.  However, my local Japanese book store is unable to get
them because the wholesaler they deal with won't ship them outside of
Japan. 

I'm still puzzled about refusing to sell something (like a DVD) to a
*domestic* Japanese university.  I'm left speculating that the
publisher views piracy among college students as being so rampant that
they refuse to sell digital content to any university.