A second-hand market for digital goods?

Surprisingly little research has focused so far on the emergence of second-hand markets for the large and somewhat fuzzy class of objects usually labelled as “digital goods”, even though it is a niche that has recently attracted both considerable investments and considerable legal controversy. This article, offering far more questions than answers, argues why it is an interesting and complex research topic for interdisciplinary scholars of technology and society – and attempts to sketch in broad strokes the complex nexus of stakeholder interests, economic dynamics, judicial pressures, social factors and technological elements lying at its core.