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QUALITY KING DISTRIBUTORS, INC. v. L'ANZA RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL, INC., 523 U.S. 135 (1998).
"17 U.S.C. § 106(3), gives the owner of a copyright the exclusive right to distribute copies of a copyrighted work. That exclusive right is expressly limited, however, by the provisions of §§107 through 120. Section 602(a) gives the copyright owner the right to prohibit the unauthorized importation of copies. The question presented by this case is whether the right granted by §602(a) is also limited by §§107 through 120. More narrowly, the question is whether the “first sale” doctrine endorsed in §109(a) is applicable to imported copies." "The District Court rejected petitioner’s defense based on the “first sale” doctrine recognized by §109 and entered summary judgment in favor of L’anza." "Based largely on its conclusion that §602 would be “meaningless” if §109 provided a defense in a case of this kind, the Court of Appeals affirmed. 98 F.3d 1109, 1114 (CA9 1996). "The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed."
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