U.S. Sup. Ct.
11-697
The exclusive rights that a copyright owner has to distribute copies … of [a] copyrighted work, 17 U. S. C. §106(3), are qualified by the application of several limitations set out in §§107 through 122, including the first sale doctrine, which provides that the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this title … is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy or phonorecord, §109(a). Importing a copy made abroad without the copyright owners permission is an infringement of §106(3). See §602(a)(1). In Quality King Distributors, Inc. v. Lanza Research Intl, Inc., 523 U. S. 135, 145, this Court held that §602(a)(1)s reference to §106(3) incorporates the §§107 through 122 limitations, including §109s first sale doctrine. However, the copy in Quality King was initially manufactured in the United States and then sent abroad and sold.
