They gave up the opportunity to engage in an activity which would have a more consistent and earlier payoff, and instead chose to spend a great deal of time and effort as well as spend money up front to risk making a product in the hope that you and others would, at your discretion, choose to purchase it sometime in the future.
You are apparently confused as to what a contract is. More so, since you are confusing it with IP law. Copyright law is in no way a contract. At most it's property that can be entered under a contract.
Consideration is both people givng something up. When I buy a car, I give up cash, the seller gives up a car. When I buy a house, I give up cash and the mortgage company gives up a portion of the principal. When I buy insurance, I give up cash, and insurance company gives up the right to a portion of their funds in case I need them. In every contract case I am free to do whatever i wish with the thing I have traded for under contract. In case of mortgage, I am free to use my principal to get a home equity loan, or to sell my house. In case of insurance, I am free to get covered against events for the months I have paid for.
When I buy a DVD, I give up cash, and the movie company gives up a disk with a movie on it. If I am to contractually give up access to DVD copying tools (ones that I own, so this doesn't even make sense), the movie company must give something up in exchange for that to be a valid contract. They do not. In fact under current IP laws they gain the right to maintain license to their movie despite not having physical possession of all copies any more. The only way IP here can be in a contractual exchange is if I gave up money, and they gave up rights to their movie to me.