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To suggest that ebooks can't be resold because of the problems of ensuring that the vendor doesn't retain a copy for themselves rather ignores the ease with which CDs can be copied. It's simplicity itself to make a physical or digital copy (or both) of a CD, and then sell on the original CD. But that someone could do this doesn't make reselling the CD illegal. It is just required of the vendor that they delete/destroy any copies that they have retained.
However, I think it's equally foolish to think that ebooks (& other digital goods) can be treated like existing physical goods, with perhaps just a minor change in the law.
My expectation is that sometime in the next decade (or two) there will be a commission to investigate and give recommendations on how deal with rights and responsibilities of vendors and customers with respect to digital goods.
It took about 25 years for the UK to get from the existence of CD-Rs (1990) to a law governing their use (2014). One can hope that a similar timetable might apply for ebooks/eReaders (say 2005 -> 2030)?
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