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Selling Something? Go to Jail! That's copyright infringement... :-/

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Tinman57:
The crazy Supreme Court case that could make it illegal for you to sell the things that you own is coming up.  Make your voice heard before it's too late.....

Well, the court hearing is set for this Monday, October 29th -- and we need you to join us in a day of online activism.

If we lose this fight, practically anybody who wants to resell products they bought -- from Macbooks and iPhones to our clothing and textbooks -- will have to ask copyright holders for permission first. And they'll have the right to deny it!

The forces that lined up in support of SOPA -- Hollywood, the recording industry, and other huge corporations -- are urging the Court to rule against consumers.

So we're going to fight back -- just like during the SOPA fight -- by using our websites to sound the alarm. Please take part!


Remarkably few people have even heard about this case, and it's time for us to change that.

Win or lose at the Supreme Court, we expect to have a legislative fight about this issue on our hands by January, and we need to push people to contact their members of Congress before Big Business gets them to side against us.

So we've built a variety of ribbons and ball-and-chain icons that you can put on your site on Monday to help make sure the whole world knows about this horrendous case.

You can view them all here, and sign up to use your site for activism on Monday -- we really need your help.

Participation from a few hundred sites -- or even a few dozen -- is almost certain to get the media's attention as they cover the Supreme Court hearing.

Everybody is welcome to join in the day of action, but your friends who sell things online will probably be especially interested.

Whether they use Craigslist, Ebay, Etsy, or just a personal site or a blog, they'll want to know that their right to keep selling could be in grave jeopardy.

http://www.youvebeenowned.org/#alarm

Demand Progress.org

Carol Haynes:
Working on this principle no-one can sell anything unless they own the IP rights to the object.

That means no shop can sell a book or anything else because the shop has to buy the product in order to sell it to their customer. On that basis the shop is the first purchaser and cannot pass the goods on!

I suppose Apple would be more than happy to be the sole supplier of iPads etc. but I am not sure Amazon etc. will be happy!

SeraphimLabs:
Yeah but there's a problem with that:

Antitrust.

This kind of law would absolutely crush a large portion of the US Economy, as well as making it outright impossible for anyone to start a new business.

On the books exist laws of the antitrust variety designed precisely to stop that kind of situation- forcing companies to break up and encouraging much needed competition.

If they actually pass this thing, then every single major business in the US needs an antitrust suit filed against it immediately on the ground that it is no longer possible for American consumers to create and distribute alternatives to the goods manufactured by these companies, who have more often than not proven they cannot be trusted.

Although we definitely need to make our stand on this one, the economic impacts alone mean that if they actually do uphold this there will with certainty be rioting leading to war from the economic collapse it would cause.

Renegade:
Yeah but there's a problem with that:

Antitrust.

This kind of law would absolutely crush a large portion of the US Economy, as well as making it outright impossible for anyone to start a new business.
-SeraphimLabs (October 24, 2012, 09:25 PM)
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Well, some things aren't patented, so you could still sell those. Farmers would be safe as they could still sell their produce, like corn and soy... Ooops. Nope. Nix that. Owned by Monsanto.

Well, at least you could still be a lumberjack. Surely that'd be OK... Oops... Nix that. Trees are owned by Syngenta.

Yep. Looks like we're completely hosed. :(

IainB:
As the DemandProgress.org puts it:
"You've been owned!"
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