....which will have "trickle down" effects on smartphones and indeed every other non-USA manufactured device
Note: no decision has been rendered yet in this case.
Justices Weigh Case on Imported Textbooks»
www.nytimes.com/2012/10/ ··· oks.htmlThe general rule for products
made in the United States is that the owners of particular copies can do what they like with them. If you buy a book or record made in the United States, for instance, you are free to lend it or sell it as you wish. The question for the justices was whether that rule, called the first-sale doctrine, also applies when the works in question were made abroad.
The answer turns on a phrase in the Copyright Act, which appears to limit the first-sale doctrine to works lawfully made under this title.
The lower courts said that textbooks manufactured outside the United States cannot have been made under American law and so remained subject to the control of the owner of the copyright.