- Joined
- Jan 15, 2019
Doctrine of first sale disagrees. If I buy a SNES game cartridge from a neighbor (after seeing a demonstration that it's still functional), that game is now mine. Nintendo is not entitled to a slice of that transaction. Nintendo is not entitled to the total value of the transaction (they don't own that copy anymore, since they sold it (the "first sale")).Physical media is generally retarded in the first place.
When I take that SNES game cartridge home and plug it into my SNES, there is no internet-based check to "validate" that I am the legal owner of that copy of the game. There is no opportunity for a remote system to decide "oh hey I've seen this key before on a different console, time to brick the console to punish this thieving faggot!" I can later decide to sell this copy of the game to a third owner, and the conditions are the same. It's a transaction between me and the buyer, Nintendo is not privy to the details, is not entitled to the money, and the cart runs on the third buyer's system whether Nintendo wants it to or not.
I don't care if it's "an unlikely scenario" these days. It is a valid scenario, one that exists right now, that at least some people still use. It is a legal right people have, have not surrendered, and is (or at least was) protected by case law.
All-digital games (and "key card" games) remove the ability to exercise this right. It is removed from you (or, rather, not provided to you in the first place). And they want the same amount of money for it versus a physical copy. If "the expense of physical" was meant to be a deterrent (or even significant to the bottom line), digital copies of games should be sold at a lower price to reflect the lack of cost of manufacturing the unit. You're getting less for your money -- less material and fewer rights.
No thanks. Physical media is great. Online checks, keys, authentication, entitlements, validations, etc. are the bullshit. And they're charging us more and more for it.