In theory, the development of some notional (and effective) Digital Rights Management software widget would enable a situation where each purchased copy of an M

In theory, the development of some notional (and effective) Digital Rights Management software widget would enable a situation where each purchased copy of an MP3 could be considered a distinct object in it's own right. This could, in turn, re-enable the "first sale" doctrinal concept - the seller would relinquish the object to it's new owner cleanly and without any "residue". However I suspect that if ever such a magical DRM widget were created it would be applied by music publishers in a way that would suppress any such free market.