US Law Gone Crazy

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The Chasing Aphrodite blog gave a link to this legal blog post: "Can US Museums Exhibit Foreign Art? Supreme Court to Decide" of October 7th, 2012. This is weird:

In effect, both courts hold the opinion that the first sale doctrine only applies to goods sold within the U.S., meaning that no one can import and sell a copyrighted good intended only for foreign audiences without the permission of the copyright owner. [...] The NY district court’s and Second Circuit’s decision doesn’t only impact eBay sellers; it impacts US-based museums and arts institutions by preventing them from exhibiting, lending, or selling foreign-made, copyrighted artworks. 

I would say it also applies to foreign-made numismatic books sold by our friends the coin dealers. A verdict to watch. Oddly enough Cultural Property Observer failed to "observe" and discuss this emerging problem, if he'd spotted it, it would have stood him nicely as "another case" where the US collector is allegedly "discriminated against" by American laws. Fortunately some US museums employ cultural property lawyers who had managed to spot it and got an amicus brief into the US Supreme Court. Oral hearing in two weeks.