What publishers want is a cut on second hand sales.. I can't think of anything else on earth that works like this. when I sold my car did toyota get a cut? did the company that made my computer desk get a cut when I brought it off another person that had no room for it in their new house. In the case of video game selling companies (ebgames etc), I would not be surprised if selling second hand games is simply mandatory to survive with the pricing margins.
Counter argument could be that software has Piracy that the others don't have (in terms of ease). Valid point, but if the latest "pay what you want" indie game collection has shown, is that its sometimes far too hard for people to pay even 1 cent, and they download it for free or torrent it. It in my eyes proves that downloaded copy != lost potential sale.
