Is it legal to purchase/ sell 35mm movie trailers from most recent
major studio films?  Also please reference official documentation or U.S.
laws that state the legality of their transactions and what you can
legally do with a trailer if you own one?

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Clarification of Question by almostmike-ga on 21 Mar 2004 18:34 PST

My question wasn't intended to go beyond display in a private home.  
Your comment does reference much of what I was asking.  The other
point of clarification from your comment that I need is: do studios
generally resell these trailers or are they being destroyed and most
of them that are for sale are not part of first-sale doctrine since
they were not legally acquired?  (Of course I'm talking in the most
general terms).  Again, legal documentation would be a terrific help!

Thank you for your comments thus far.

It is very likely that the studio that produced the film owns the
copyright to the trailer as well.  Thus, as with any other copyrighted
work, what one who does NOT own the copyright may do with the trailer
is subject to US copyright laws.  You specifically ask about
purchasing and selling.  US copyright law has a provision known as the
first-sale doctrine that states that one who lawfully is in possession
of a copy of a work may sell that work without liability to the
copyright owner, as long as the seller divest herself of all copies of
the work.  This is why you can, e.g., buy used books and VHS tapes at
garage sales without the owner of the copyright coming back and trying
to get a piece of the action.  (Note that this does not affect any of
the copyright owner?s other exclusive rights.)  So yes, if you are
lawfully in possession of a copy of a film trailer, i.e., the
copyright owner or their agent actually sold you the copy of which you
are in possession, then you may sell it under the first sale doctrine.
 If you meant to broaden your question to include other uses (like
renting, public display, etc.), those are very different situations.

My question wasn't intended to go beyond display in a private home.  
Your comment does reference much of what I was asking.  The other
point of clarification from your comment that I need is: do studios
generally resell these trailers or are they being destroyed and most
of them that are for sale are not part of first-sale doctrine since
they were not legally acquired?  (Of course I'm talking in the most
general terms).  Again, legal documentation would be a terrific help!

Thank you for your comments thus far.

The owner of the copyright in a movie trailer has exclusive rights to
public performance.  See 17 U.S.C. Section 106.  This means that no,
you cannot lawfully display the work in your home UNLESS you also have
a license (permission) from the copyright owner.  This is why movies
you rent from Blockbuster have a warning screen at the beginning that
says you only have a license to display it in your home for
noncommercial viewing.  I know that, e.g., Best Buy is currently
giving away DVD's with the "HellBoy" trailer on it.  Obvioulsy, the
studio (as the copyright owner) authorized the distribution of those
trailers and has granted to persons obtaining a copy of the DVD the
right to publicly perform it (display it at home).  If, alternatively,
you download a trailer off the Internet using Kazaa from a file-sharer
who works at a studio and stole the trailer to upload it and share it,
then no, you do not have a license to display it at home.

It is difficult to know if a copy you are purchasing was lawfully
obtained and thus is subject to the first sale doctrine.  Do studios
generally sell copies of trailers?  I can find no clearly endorsed
sources of studio trailers where it is stated that these are being
sold by the studio or their authorized agent.  Most trailers are just
given away (like the HellBoy trailer DVD--incidentally, if you go to
Best Buy and pick up one of the free DVD's, you are free to sell it
under the first sale doctrine, if you could find someone dumb enough
to buy it, when you got it for lawfully for free), and again, if
that's a lawful copy you may sell it if you wish.  Note that this does
not mean you could download a trailer from a movie site, burn it onto
DVD?s and sell them?-the license grant at the site forbids that use. 
See, e.g.,  http://www.sonypictures.com/corp/tos.html (which is a link
from the HellBoy trailer site at
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/hellboy/).