PLEASE TAKE ACTION: SIGN the linked petition mentioned below–and SHARE and RE-POST the petition on social networks you use and visit—Facebook, Google+, MySpace, etc., and with your loved ones and friends :
Do you value the ability freely to resell your unwanted belongings for cash? Do you value the ability to buy such things? (This includes books, clothing, home furnishings, CDs, and DVDs.)
If you do, you had better read this post carefully.
The latest skirmish in the copyright/property rights war is now taking place.
Big Content–the recording companies, film studios, and their ilk–have been involved in Kirstaeng vs. Wiley, a suit now being heard by the Supreme Court.
Big Content wants to use this court case to eliminate the Doctrine of First Sale, which allows you the freedom to re-sell your personal property. At stake is your right to re-sell the goods you own (iPod, used books, CDs, licensed merchandise, etc.) online on eBay, Craigslist, or even IN PERSON (yard sales and flea markets!).
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Big Content in the Kirstaeng case, your ability to resell all kinds of personal property may be severely curtailed.
Or, you might be required to obtain permission to sell the property from the companies who originally manufactured it, or hold the intellectual-property rights to it. And those companies might refuse you permission to resell the property, or even require you to pay them a fee or commission on its sale.
This would be intolerable in America. It’s more than a little astounding that such an issue has even been brought before the Supreme Court. But it is happening, in this county, at this time
Unfortunately, Big Content now has an extra-large ally on their side: the White House. The United States Solicitor General has rejected consumers’ pleas to enjoin businesses from suing individuals for the lawful resale of their personal property, & has filed a brief in the Kirstaeng case.
We realize that this is a particularly awkward time for any of us to think about a political issue other than the presidential and senatorial campaigns. But it’s a vital issue, and one that directly affects a very important American freedom for EVERYONE.
PLEASE FIGHT BACK! Sign the petition at the link below, urging the Administration and Congress to preserve the Doctrine of First Sale—a basic American freedom—and to cease supporting copyright trolls!
SIGN the petition
SHARE the petition
RE-POST the petition
Thank you for standing up for your own and others’ property rights!
will do
Thanks for taking action on this and spreading the news to your friends and relatives, Jeanna! If all of us speak up, we can make Washington hear us and safeguard our freedoms.
We went from not being very free, to being more free and now it’s moving towards not being very free again.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Alissa. Unfortunately, your summary of our predicament is spot-on. Now more than ever, it’s necessary for us to fight: to make our voices heard about issues like this. Please do sign the petition and share it with everyone you know!
I will sign, but the Supreme Court is not required to hear the voices of petitioners.
Thanks, Danielle. I’m well aware of that, but this petition is not aimed at the Supreme Court.
It’s for the eyes of the White House and Congress, who should re-think this egregious decision to throw in with Big Content, and re-think siding against the consumer. The hope is that with sufficient public pressure, the Solicitor General will withdraw or amend the Administration’s brief in the Kirstaeng case.
Thanks for the heads up. I will look into this.
Thanks, Mary! I hope that when you do, you’ll sign the petition. This is a really big issue, and I suspect the pols in Washington are counting on all of us to be distracted by the upcoming national elections–using them as cover to try to slip this past us unnoticed.
That would be a total abuse.
It would indeed, Leovi. Thanks for your comment.
count me in
Thanks very much, Daryl! Please be sure also to spread the word and let all your friends know.
I agree with Alissa It’s the same here too
Have a spooky Halloween LOL
Sorry to hear that, Steve…it was seeming that way, from all we’ve heard. Unfortunately, too, for us the kibosh has been put on Halloween in the Northeast, due to Sandy…no trick-or-treat this year.
Thanks for your comment.
Thanks for the heads up! This is all kinds of wrong! SMH!
Linked up, Happy Wordless Wednesday, thanks for keeping my brain cells moving as always!
Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly
For some reason comment luv is NOT linking to my current post, my WW this week was: http://www.ascendingbutterfly.com/2012/10/wordless-wednesday-focus-on-fashion-all.html
Thanks very much for your comment, Tracy, as well as for signing the petition. This is indeed all kinds of wrong. But if all of us band together, we stand a better chance of stopping inequities like this from being ramrodded through the courts. Thanks again!