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Opinion of the Court
ified our holding in Bobbs-Merrill that the exclusive right to "vend" was limited to first sales of the work.7 Under the 1976 Act, the comparable exclusive right granted in 17 U. S. C. § 106(3) is the right "to distribute copies . . . by sale or other transfer of ownership." 8 The comparable limitation on that right is provided not by judicial interpretation, but by an express statutory provision. Section 109(a) provides:
"Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106(3), the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this title, or any person authorized by such owner, is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy or phonorecord. . . ." 9
7 Congress codified the first sale doctrine in § 41 of the Copyright Act of 1909, ch. 320, 35 Stat. 1084, and again in § 27 of the 1947 Act, ch. 391, 61 Stat. 660.
8 The full text of § 106 reads as follows: "§ 106. Exclusive rights in copyrighted works
"Subject to sections 107 through 120, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
"(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; "(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work; "(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
"(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;
"(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and
"(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission." 17 U. S. C. § 106 (1994 ed., Supp. I).
9 The comparable section in the 1909 and 1947 Acts provided that "nothing in this Act shall be deemed to forbid, prevent, or restrict the transfer
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