Second hand is different from pirating because the royalties have been paid. When it’s sold to the second owner the status of having paid the royalties passes with it. With physical media the disk, tape, or reel and the license to use it privately are the same thing. Otherwise we’d need a system to keep track of who owns every disk, tape, or reel, and who owns the license to each and that’s a sure fire way to get everyone to begin pirating.
Second hand is different from pirating because the royalties have been paid. When it’s sold to the second owner the status of having paid the royalties passes with it. With physical media the disk, tape, or reel and the license to use it privately are the same thing. Otherwise we’d need a system to keep track of who owns every disk, tape, or reel, and who owns the license to each and that’s a sure fire way to get everyone to begin pirating.
That’s a great point.
Basically if a thing has a reliable second hand market, people will be more inclined to buy them.
DVDs for the longest time had no market, you couldn’t give them away. Now it’s picking up again. Blurays even more so.