Apple has filed a patent that deals with passing the rights to digital content between users. This would potentially allow users to sell or loan their pre-owned content to each other.
“The transferor is prevented from accessing the digital content item after the transfer occurs,” reads the patent. “The entity that sold the digital content item to the transferor enforces the access rights to the digital content item by storing data that establishes which user currently has access to the digital content item. After the change in access rights, only the transferee is allowed access to the digital content item.”
“As part of the change in access rights, the transferee may pay to obtain access to the digital content item,” it continues. “A portion of the proceeds of the ‘resale’ may be paid to the creator or publisher of the digital content item and/or the entity that originally sold the digital content item to the original owner.”
Source: Apple Insider
