Comment by wonkaMikeTV | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wonkaMikeTV | Hacker News Reader

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But seriously... selling "used" software?

Used. Software.

That's like selling used poems, or used voicemail greetings.

  Hey guys! This particular hard copy of Ezekiel 25:17 
  from the bible is almost new! It's only been seen by human 
  eyes three times! Verified as authentic via flatbed 
  scanner and then CRC32 checksumming it's OCR results! 
  Hardly any wear and tear! $150 and it's yours!

I know, how about we start selling used radio waves, and used alternating current polarity cycles. (your choice of sine or triangle waves)

Used software (in the form of original floppy disks or optical media) used to be a common sight at independent computer stores. Even now, used games (usually optical media for consoles) are widely available for a fraction of the original price.

The part that's odd is that, as with any digital media, it's trivial to make copies. Traditionally, things have only been property if it's possible to possess them and keep them from others. In an industrial society with a powerful government, that's true of things like the right to print books containing a given text, but it isn't true of publicly-distributed digital media.

Yes, who ever would buy used software http://www.gamestop.com/browse/games/xbox-360?nav=1385-50-ff...

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