Why is renting games legal?

[bardicverse]

liquidninja said:

@bardicverse
It sounds like you're implying that because a homeless man could be making money flashing people on the street if it weren't for laws, and afternoon lunches he's losing up to $50 bucks a day on the potential market for homeless flashers.

Are you even trying to have a discussion here, or just bored? That analogy doesn't even make sense.

If a person rents a game, they are obviously somewhat interested in the game. Let's take Halo, just to have a subject. People hear about Halo, are interested in playing it. This is your potential market.

They have 3 options:

Buy, Rent, Borrow (from friend, etc)

If they rent and don't buy afterwards, a portion of that potential market for Halo sales has vanished, resulting in less copies sold.

If they buy, that is the active market, resulting in sales and eventually profit.

If they borrow but don't eventually buy, it is like renting, but no money is involved at all.

So in essence, only 1/3rd of the potential Halo market will be profitable for the developer/publisher.

Now, if there was no renting option, then 1/2 of the potential Halo market would be profitable to the developer/publisher.

Follow me now?