Student Charged For Re-selling Textbooks 489
AstroPhilosopher writes "The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal from a Thai student who was fined $600,000 for re-selling textbooks. Trying to make ends meet, the student had family members in Thailand mail him textbooks that were made and purchased abroad, which he then resold in the U.S. It's a method many retailers practice every day. 'Discount sellers like Costco and Target and Internet giants eBay and Amazon help form an estimated $63 billion annual market for goods that are purchased abroad, then imported and resold without the permission of the manufacturer. The U.S.-based sellers, and consumers, benefit from the common practice of manufacturers to price items more cheaply abroad than in the United States. This phenomenon is sometimes called a parallel market or grey market.'"
Re:I Don't See the Parallelism Here ... (Score:3, Funny)
I agree with eldavojohn - send him to Gitmo!
Re:College now days is more about profit now days (Score:5, Funny)
Normally I'm not a grammar Nazi, and I'm sure someone could find some fault in this post too. That said, based on your writing ability, it's not easy to accept your advice on the value of a college education.
Give the kid a break (Score:2, Funny)
Give the kid a break. $300,000 is lesson enough.
Re:The advance of IP (Score:5, Funny)
When we pool our money together to buy politicians
Hence deregulation to transfer the savings of the American people away from them, inequitable free trade to eliminate jobs and suppress wages, and the levying of private taxes by Big Carbon and "high finance"/"the speculators" [thinkprogress.org] in order to ensure that the many have ever less money to pool together.
Re:The advance of IP (Score:2, Funny)
I initially read that as "Until someone with some guns actually stands up and stops them." Ultimately, I think it's going to come down to that.
Re:I Don't See the Parallelism Here ... (Score:5, Funny)
I wasn't about to pay three times the price so I can have unecessary colour in my textbook!
Yet you're willing to pay extra for the time, bandwidth, and storage to put an unnecessary u in color. ;P
Re:I Give Up (Score:4, Funny)
As an American I'd love to hear where the hell in the States you are buying a gallon milk for a buck ninety-nine because it sure as shit ain't that cheap anywhere around here.
You already know the answer (Score:5, Funny)
I still don't understand how we put up with it.
Because you have to. Because you can't afford your own lobbyist.