Stupid logic is stupid.
First, renting and buy/selling used games is LEGAL. Piracy is not. Hence in this context renting/buying used =/= piracy
Second, renting and buying used requires...the legal purchase of a new game through legal channels. Piracy often occurs with a leaked, and hence not legally purchased new, game. Hence in this context renting/buying used =/= piracy.
Third, game rental stores/chains enter into a legal contract with the game distributor, the game distributor has entered into a legal contract with the game developer. One must assume (unless the developer's lawyers are wholly incompetent) that part of the legal contract between developers and distributors is the ability to make the game available through rental outlets, and that this involved fair compensation for rental copies sold. Equally the distributor's contract with rental companies involves a negotiated fair compensation for game rental. Either the rental company pays much more than the normal retail price for a game, and thus owns the game with a legal right to rent it, or the game is leased to the retnal company with a portion rental income going to the distributor and hence feeding back in one way or another to the developer. Hence in this context renting =/= piracy.
Fourth, video games are goods, not services, throughout history once somone has purchased a good it is theirs to use and dispose of as they please, provided how they use it and dispose of it are legal. It's been a fundamental part of the whole economic system since trading in goods began. There is no sound rationale for videogames (computer software in general) to operate outside this mode of economic practice. Patent laws prevent me from copying a "hardware" good and selling it without legal recourse to the patnet owner, copyright laws prevent the same for "software" goods. But a single good legally purchased, but no longer of use or value to the owner SHOULD be on-sold if it is still perfectly functional . To do otherwise would be wasteful. Hence in this context buying used =/= piracy.
Fifth, ever since literacy among the masses became widespread (at least in some countries) public libraries with the [essentially] free lending of books have been a mainstay of continuously advancing cultures. Drawing a parallell to videogames suggests that lending libraries, rather than being preserved, should be banned and burnt to the ground. Yeah, I can see that happening. There are also libraries around the place that have gaming consoles, and allow library members to play games in the library, and this is all legal and above board. Hence in this context renting/lending =/= piracy.
Six, there's only one context in which there is a slight and highly tenuous connection between second-hand trading and piracy: that's retailers buying games off the consumer and re-selling for a profit. But even that has a lot of historical precedent (including ridiculously high mark-ups compared to the trade-in value) with other goods, including "software" goods like books. Hence even in the most maligned and reviled segment of the used game market buying used =/= piracy.
Thus there is no logic or rational which allows one to rationally demonstrate that the legal activities of used game trading and renting are in any way equivalent, or even in the same ballpark of deplorability, to piracy.
