Buying Used and Pirating...

This just occurred to me this morning... Is there really any moral difference between buying used media and just pirating it, besides of course, that one doesn't cost you anything? In both cases, the original producer of the media gets nothing. Buying a used copy of Little Big Planet from Gamestop? Media Molecule isn't gonna see a dime of that. And, obviously, they wouldn't if you pirated it either. Only you get to save $45-50 in that case. Am I thinking about this wrong or is buying used just to save 5 dollars off a new copy of something just as bad as illegally downloading/copying it would be? Hell, is it worse? After all, you were basically willing to put up money to get the item, but because you wanted to save a few bucks, the creator of the product will get nothing in return for your purchase. Hmmmmmmmm...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You're forgetting that buying a used game is basically taking away the sale of a new game, unless we're talking about out-of-print stuff. Exhibit A walks into a store and sees Bluray A available new for $25 and then sees BluRay A available for $20 used. He buys the used copy, thus the sale of the new copy is lost.

As far as pirating goes, I'm only talking about obtaining a copy, not giving copies out.

How ya doing, buddy?

If by "recouping the cost", you mean getting shafted by either Gamestop's ridiculously low trade-in values or E-bay's slicing off the top...

And while I understand the point about supply/demand, it would certainly be better for any company's (not the retailer) pockets if there were no used ____ market. Regardless, I'm not necessarily referring to the market as a whole, but simply an individual's choice between either buying something used or pirating it. Obviously pirating as a whole has a more negative impact on "X" industry than the used item market does, but I'm only talking about the morals on an individual level.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

On a market level, private sales in used goods certainly do not occur on the scale that they do with companies like E-bay, Amazon Marketplace, and Gamestop. It's simply easier than trying to set up a sale yourself, unless you really want to be a douche and sell your best bud a used game for 80% of it's original cost, in which case, he'd be a fool to buy it (unless the item is like a week old, but I'll never understand why people BUY stuff just to sell it a week later; it's called renting/leasing).

Originally Posted by Worm

The only way to make it a moral issue to say something about being "part of the problem" (i.e. contributing to the a larger, collective effect of used purchased or piracy), in which case the point stands.

Well that's exactly what I'm saying, but admittedly I didn't get that across quite as succinctly.



Hmm, and now that I mentioned renting, do you think the rental business is just as detrimental to the industry? It has the same concept as pirating (X buys product and distributes it to many individuals), only you pay for it.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Alright, after arguing with Skills for what seems like 2 hours now in AIM, I will just say I'm retarded, the concept of this thread was lost on everyone, and did I mention I'm retarded? So have fun.

I was speaking idiomatically.