No. I own that copy. It's not a license to anything. I own it. It's mine. That's what the money was for.

Yeah that’s not how copyright works. You are either the owner of the IP (i.e. the company that paid for developing the game) or you need a license to be allowed to own/play a copy. There is no third option here.

Don't play corporate word games with concepts as basic as having things.

It’s not word games, it’s the law. You and I may not like it but that doesn’t really change anything.

Sure, sell. But there are still limitations. You aren’t allow to rent it out or sell copies, for example.

Just because the license is a bit more permissive doesn’t make you the owner, it’s still licensed software, not owned software.

The only thing you own is the 2 cents worth of plastic the disc is made off. The actual content on the disc is licensed.

That's as close to 'owning' a piece of copyrighted material as you are ever going to get.

Not true at all. Pretty much all of us own loads of copyrighted material, as in actually own. For example: every single photo you take is your intellectual property.

First sale doctrine gives you some rights, but it doesn’t give all the same rights you would have for any other physical object that doesn’t include copyrighted work.

If I buy 100 chairs, I’m free to start a chair rental business. If I buy 100 copies of a game, I cannot start renting them out without permission from the actual owner of the game.

The fact that the law entitles you to a slightly broader license doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s still just a license and not ownership. The only thing you own is the physical media (e.g. the plastic disc) not the contents of that disc.

First sale doctrine gives you some rights, but it doesn’t give the all same rights you would have for any other physical object that doesn’t include copyrighted work.

If I buy 100 chairs, I’m free to start a chair rental business. If I buy 100 copies of a game, I cannot start renting them out without permission from the actual owner of the game.

The fact that the law entitles you to a slightly broader license doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s still just a license and not ownership. The only thing you own is the physical media (e.g. the plastic disc) not the contents of that disc.

Exactly. You own the physical paper, you don’t own the text on that paper, you only have a license to it.

With physical games the disc or cartridge acts as your license key, which they allow you to sell to another person. Doesn’t mean they couldn’t have sold you a non-transferable license, it only means they chose not to. Probably because it wouldn’t be cost-effective to do so.

Also, just because you can do something doesn’t make it legal.

That's the difference between license and owning.

No, when you own a game, you can make copies and sell them. That is because owning the game means you own the copyright to the game.

If you are not the owner of the IP (which you aren’t, unless you own the company that made the game), then the only way to legally play the game is for the actual owner to provide you with some kind of license. If you don’t have a license then the default copyright rules apply which means you aren’t legally allowed to have or play a copy.

Your license is also limited and doesn’t allow you to ‘do whatever you want’. Try selling copies and see how quickly you get sued. You can’t even do what you want with your single copy. Go buy a bunch of physical games and start a game rental business. Or buy a bunch of physical games and open a game cafe where people can play ‘your’ games. Your license doesn’t allow you to do that.

You do not own physical games either. It’s just harder for the publisher to revoke a license for a physical game but legally there is little difference.