Eine Wolke, auf der man keinen Husten bekommt

In a comments thread at Scatterplot, olderwoman writes:

re “buy cheaper used copies on line” note that this does not help to compensate the people who wrote the creative content, nor the editors, nor publishers.

Yes, it does, because to the extent that (potential) book buyers are rational they will consider the fact that they are allowed to resell the book when deciding whether or not to buy a book. In other words, take away the right to resell the book, and demand drops (if prices are constant).

And anyway, what's wrong with two parties agreeing that party A gets a certain amount of money from party B and party B in return gets a product, including the right to do with it whatever it wants?

Strangely enough, I've never heard the complaint that when cars are resold, this does not help to compensate the people who provided the creative content, nor the manufacturing company.

Obviously, books are special, and authors are noble.