#11 - Buying and selling used.
Chuck Harris - Astrixs - It is an interesting question that actually places a question on ownership.
In order for the publishers to establish that the downloading of files was illegal they first had to explain to the courts why it was theft. In the scenario where a person purchases an item from a second hand store or from a friend or what have you, the artist had already made their profit from the sale of the medium (the cd, dvd or casette) to the store. Additionally those transactions the seller relinquishes the physical medium for the media. The store in turn makes their return on investment when the first owner purchases the item. When the medium is purchased whether by the store or by a consumer it is by law their property to do what they wish (provided there isnt an EULA attached). So purchasing a medium second hand item isn’t the same as downloading media via the P2P apps or warez sites since the owner of the medium isn’t relinquishing his or her physical copy, but simply sharing media from that medium. In the end, when purchasing these things you as an end consumer are not purchasing the rights to the media but to the medium to resell if you so choose.
Steve Giunto - Bark at the Moon - Almost teetering on a lengthy scruples discussion. First, I believe you are intending to use the term “downloading” as “illegally downloading”. Big difference. The fact an item was originally purchased legally, giving full royalties to the author at that sale, should leave all parties with a clean conscious and this topic, almost closed. The key words here are “originally purchased legally”.
I have no problem buying a used record/cd from that person, I’m sure it’s legal, and even more, it’s what keeps garage sales and ebay in existence, and the original author still got their royalties on the original sale. Sure conceivably, a person could buy a CD, listen to it for awhile, ebay it, and the cycle could continue for one million people, and the author lost out on 999,999 sales. Or more realistically, 500,000 people can buy the CD, each of them ebay it, and the author still lost out on 500,000 sales. I’m sure there’s some macro/micro economics term for this but hence…..I’m a designer, and in my professional world…that’s just “the way it is”, the author knows it, and it’s legal so there’s not much to discuss.
If a record/cd or MP3 is stolen and then resold, well then it’s pretty clear, that’s wrong. Furthermore, transfer of ownership or licenses should be adhered to, if in place. Especially in the case of software, most titles are probably legally protected from being resold by intellectual property rights, or license agreements. As in each case, scruples quite often comes in. Hope this helps your next scruples game.
Eric Smith - Mind ArchitectureI think the issue with buying used digital products is that it’s difficult to ensure that the item isn’t simply being copied and then sold vs. being sold, intact, by the original buyer.
If the product is being sold by the original (or subsequent) buyer and that person includes all relevant files, licensing keys, etc. and retains no ability to use the product after the sale, I see no problem. I think it’s unreasonable for producers of digital products to expect every purchase to be first-party from them.
But, given that it’s so easy to copy and re-sell digital products, it’s also unreasonable to think that the after market for used digital goods is like the after market for used cars where one licensed product is being sold to a single buyer.
So, we’re left with a market in which people who want to legitimately sell their used software are the extreme minority compared to those pirating the same software. Until there’s a way to tell the difference, I don’t think selling used digital products can be considered legitimate.