united-states international
Amazon 3rd party seller shipped me a book in US which clearly say &quot;For sale in Indian subcontinent only&quot;
<p>What legal options do I have if an Amazon 3rd party seller shipped me a book in US which clearly says &quot;For sale in Indian subcontinent only&quot; ?</p>
<p>I'd like to get a US edition book and get some penalties enforced on the seller who is selling illegal items in US.</p>
<p>I ordered a new book in US from a 3rd party seller on Amazon.com, to be shipped to a US address.</p>

<p>First, the seller has not violated copyright law by selling you this book. <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/thai-student-protected-by-first-sale-supreme-court-rules/" rel="noreferrer">Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley &amp; Sons, Inc.</a> provides the precedent. The Supreme Court ruled that the First Sale doctrine applies to &quot;grey market&quot; imports of books, so buying a book cheaply in another country and then shipping it to the USA is entirely legal, regardless of what the publisher would like.</p>
<p><a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/568/519/" rel="noreferrer">The court</a> wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Putting section numbers to the side, we ask whether the “first sale” doctrine applies to protect a buyer or other lawful owner of a copy (of a copyrighted work) lawfully manufactured abroad. Can that buyer bring that copy into the United States (and sell it or give it away) without obtaining permission to do so from the copyright owner? Can, for example, someone who purchases, say at a used bookstore, a book printed abroad subsequently resell it without the copyright owner’s permission?</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>In our view, the answers to these questions are, yes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtsaeng_v._John_Wiley_%26_Sons,_Inc." rel="noreferrer">Wikipedia</a> also has an article on the case.</p>
<p>As for your recourse against the seller, this would seem to be very limited unless they specifically promised you the US edition, or the content is materially different between US and Indian editions. You don't say what kind of book this is. Textbooks typically have identical content.  Fiction and other entertainment books generally have local idioms and terminology changed (e.g. &quot;pavement&quot; versus &quot;sidewalk&quot;) but will otherwise be the same. You <em>might</em> be able to claim that this is a material difference, but its likely to be difficult.</p>

<p>I assume that this is Amazon US and a US used-book dealer. The &quot;For sale in India only&quot; condition is a contractual relationship between the publisher and sellers in India. From the perspective of US law, it is perfectly legal to buy an India-only copy in India, then re-sell it in the US. For all you know, somebody brought a copy with them to the US and did just that. The reseller (presumably) has no contractual relation with the publisher, and even if they did, <em>you</em> can't sue the reseller for breach of the India-only contract with the publisher. The only party that has legal recourse based on the &quot;India sale only&quot; restriction is the publisher. However, given the likely physical differences between the US edition and the India edition, you have arguably been harmed (therefore can sue) – you didn't get what you reasonably believed that you were buying. If there was a clear sign that this deal was too good to be true (new copy of a book at 10% of market price) then the courts would probably say that you should have known what you were getting.</p>
<p>The publisher might have some interest in the matter and might pressure the reseller (but more likely will not). Amazon, on the other hand, is more interested in happy customers, and will smack sellers for bad behavior. The courts are very unlikely to punish the reseller.</p>
