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Opinion of the Court
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court.
Section 106(3) of the Copyright Act of 1976 (Act), 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.
I
Respondent, L'anza Research International, Inc. (L'anza), is a California corporation engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling shampoos, conditioners, and other hair care products. L'anza has copyrighted the labels that are affixed to those products. In the United States, L'anza sells exclusively to domestic distributors who have agreed to resell within limited geographic areas and then only to authorized retailers such as barber shops, beauty salons, and professional hair care colleges. L'anza has found that the American "public is generally unwilling to pay the price charged for high quality products, such as L'anza's products, when they are sold along with the less expensive lower quality products that are generally carried by supermarkets and
ard Kelly, and Robert J. Verdisco; and for Jan-Bell Marketing, Inc., by Michael J. Gaertner.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Intellectual Property Law Association by Arthur J. Levine and John N. O'Shea; for the Beauty and Barber Supply Institute Inc. et al. by Deborah M. Lodge; for the National Consumers League et al. by Charles E. Buffon, Caroline M. Brown, Jan S. Amundson, Quentin Riegel, and Daniel F. O'Keefe, Jr.; for the Recording Industry Association of America et al. by Theodore B. Olson and Preeta D. Bansal; and for Swarovski America Limited by Werner Kronstein.
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