Japan To Ban Sale Of Second Hand Electronics?
from the the-world-goes-more-digital-every-day dept
While intellectual property supporters love to pretend that intellectual property and tangible property are identical, there are, of course, plenty of differences. Among the major ones are the ability to replicate at no marginal cost, the fact that intellectual property protection is for a limited (though, in many cases, growing) time period... and that tangible goods have a right of first sale, that let you resell whatever you've bought. That's simply not true with digital goods -- where the technical limitations placed on the goods usually forbid their resale -- meaning that you never really own those goods, you only rent them. We've noticed in the past few months that there's been a growing attack on the right of first sale, probably because the makers of tangible goods are becoming aware just how good digital goods makers have things. The latest story comes from Japan. The details on this are anything but clear, so it's possible that there's a misreading somewhere, but Digg points us to a story saying that the sale of any second-hand electronics that are more than five years old will soon be illegal in Japan. The shortsighted reasoning is that this cuts out the grey market, forbidding anyone from profiting on a product without the original manufacturer also profiting. This ties back in with the whole jealousy issue, where people have come to the conclusion that if you ever touched something, you deserve to profit from it any time anyone else profits from it. However, this is a shortsighted position because it actively harms the market for your goods. Having an active secondary "used" market increases the value of your products, because the buyers take into account the fact that they can resell it later. Taking that resale value out of the equation can drop how much people are willing to pay for your products by a wide margin. Update: Well, we noted there was little to back this up, and another source is claiming that the original story is misleading. There is still some element of trying to restrict the right of first sale, but it may not be as bad as originally reported.
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possibly...or an alternative thought
Another view:
Take cars: In the developed Asian world there are often laws on the maximum age of a vehicle (5 years.) This means that as soon as you have new smog or fuel efficiency standards you are can guarantee that close to 100% of the vehicles are compliant. While it should be noted that these "old" cars are then sold off to the developing nations where they can cause further environmental damage, your town's air is cleaner.
Why not apply the same rule to electronics? Non energy efficient computers - tossed out. Old parts with mercury or other haz materials - recycled in a 5 year span.
While electronics do not have registration requirements (therefore making it more difficult to enforce) one can control their numbers through resale.
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Re: possibly...or an alternative thought
Local Affiliate
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Add an extra 25% to the price for the license, and move on. Prohibit the reselling of anything used, and start tax funded police forces to regulate the use of everything.
Or maybe we could just start giving our paychecks to some governing body, let them deduct what they feel is appropriate, and if there is any money left, dispurse it back to the earner.
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Re: possibly...or an alternative thought
Not everyone can AFFOARD to replace all of their electronics every 5 years. Further, the amount of waste this would create VASTLY outpaces whatever slight environmental benefit reduced power consumption provides. It also significantly reduces the liklihood that companies will strive to produce quality, long-lasting electronics. A 5-year lifespan may be fine for cell phones or cheap calculators, though I find even those examples dubious.
And lastly, I could find NO "ASIAN" COUNTRY which enforces a mandatory replacement of vehichles after 5 years (let alone "most"). You want to point to a country that, right now, has no vehicles on the road older than 2001, I'd like to see it. I think that's made up.
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Re: possibly...or an alternative thought
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try singapore, but its 10 years.
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Re: try singapore, but its 10 years.
Japan requires you have your car 'inspected' every three years. This is expensive and time consuming.
You also pay taxes/registration/licence based on the age of the car, as the car becomes older the fees increase dramatically.
Repairs are also incredibly expensive, making replacement cheaper than repairs after even a minor accident.
So it may not be 'law' in Japan but is uneconomic not to replace your car after five years (before the six year inspection).
Like trying to repair/upgrade an old PC, it is cheaper and easier to buy a new one....
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Wonder what Yahoo! makes of this....
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Some details regarding this Japanese law
Additionally, it does not affect the rights of individuals to sell the odd non-certified vintage or secondhand electronic device. (If you do a brisk trade on hundreds of such devices on Yahoo! Japan Auctions or similar (Ebay does not currently have a local Japanese presence), the authorities are likely to deem you to be in the trade, however)
The big group kicking up a fuss are the musicians, who complain (with justification) that this will have the effect of limiting the access to vintage hardware whose performance cannot be replicated with modern devices. But again, why now? Couldn't they get their act together earlier, and not a couple of months before the law kicks in?
Terrible law to be sure (which affects some niche markets in a big way), but there are product liability implications to be absolutely fair, and consumer protection regarding the sale of second hand goods is in need of some sort of change.
Basically Japan didn't have much of a 2nd hand market (for commodity type goods - vintage goods are a separate issue) until the decade long depression, and consumer complaints regarding 2nd hand goods merchants is not uncommon.
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PSE law in Japan
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PSE law in Japan
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