I largely agree with your post, though I don't know about the 'grey zone'. It's actually not all that grey (at least when it comes down to the first sale doctrine which allows you to resell your own stuff, regardless of terms of services), so I find it slightly annoying that companies act as if they have the right to do so, and try to circumvent it and use lock-ins. Or complain if people buy it cheaper elsewhere.

I think someone should actually oblige companies to follow up on this. But then again, I'd rather not do it to Larian and GOG first, since those are rather 'small' indie-esque companies. One should tackle the big guys first. Maybe Steam would be a good start, but then again, I'd rather have a pro-deo advocate instead of paying thousands to bring it to court. ;-) Even if one wins, you'd need to put the money there first, and I'm no millionaire. In fact, Steam tries to act as a 'big brother' system - it's still illegal to claim one can not resell your own games, though. The point is not that one can't enforce such control with physical products but one maybe can with digital goods, but that we have the *right* to resell it, period.


Now, as said, I understand the 'seller POV' as you say: it's just a matter of maximising their profits. But the rule of the game should be the free market, with all the consequences that entails. And also with respect to consumer-rights. Forbidding 'reselling' and using regional-codes are trying to circumvent this, and that should be regarded as unacceptable.

Of course, strictly speaking (in a pragmatical sense), you are right that such a 'grey area' is best: at least that way, the more intelligent people can still buy it at cheap prices. If they have to search another business-model, god knows how the prices will fare, and you might not be able to buy it cheap anywhere, without waiting a year or two. (not that that would be *so* dramatic, but still).

The thing that annoys me the most is the mentality of companies trying to impose things they know full well aren't actually legally binding. And with things like (the forbidding of) reselling, it's not a good thing for the consumers neither.