Paying authors royalties on 2nd hand book sales

One is a completed transaction, the other is a contractual relationship, and the ease of entering into one-sided contractual relationships on the software age has me thinking we need to take a hard look at contract law to figure out if we're using it in a way that is really helping society in the long run. If you go off the essential intent and spirit of contract law, you should have direct, trivial access to those you're trying to enter an agreement with to alter terms. You don't have that. No one does.