New patent troll: Amazon patents the digital marketplace.

[El Mano]

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-...ace-019503.php

Would you be interested in buying a “used digital object”? Amazon thinks that people will be, and it has just gotten a patent for such a secondary market.

The patent, Patent no. 8,364,595, first filed in 2009 and then awarded on January 29 of this year, describes a system for participants to sell, trade, give or loan once-owned digital objects, including used digital games, audio books, e-books, movies or apps. It’s like an eBay plus a library lending program for anything on your computer, tablet or smartphone.

And the patent:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...S=PN/8,364,595


Please somebody do something. This is madness. What will be next?

[Warboy]

Oh I would love to see this, Amazon patents this, and the only thing they do with it is sue apple, then make a open agreement with other companies.

[zanzabar]

having patents like that does not make you a troll, using them to sue does.

[zalbard]

Steam may be in trouble after recent issues in Germany...

[Hornet331]

Steam may be in trouble after recent issues in Germany...

Not only Steam/Vale that will affect everyone who sells digital goods in an account system, Amazon, apple, every site where you can buy videos (not streaming), software etc.

Thats why I also doubt there will be much done it this regards, or if it goes through it would be quite funny if steam just doesn't sell anything in germany anymore.

[zanzabar]

Steam may be in trouble after recent issues in Germany...

it was an EU problem not a german one, it also looks like a does not matter since you are buying a life time subscription for your account. i would love to be able to sell used steam games, but it also does not seam reasonable.

[Hornet331]

it was an EU problem not a german one, it also looks like a does not matter since you are buying a life time subscription for your account. i would love to be able to sell used steam games, but it also does not seam reasonable.

Na it was germany -> verbraucherschutz and its actually a case that dates back to 2010.

The used copy sale stuff from the EU was against oracle (but also applies for steam or any other software distribution platform for that matter) which resulted in a EU-law. Which now the VB uses to sue valve.

[Sparky]

Oh I would love to see this, Amazon patents this, and the only thing they do with it is sue apple, then make a open agreement with other companies.

lol

having patents like that does not make you a troll, using them to sue does.

True. Maybe they are "patenting" stuff like this just to be first and keep the likes of Apple from abusing it. Guess we'll have to see.

[BenchZowner]

Aight, Imma list my digital tracks collection for sale on ebay ( sorry Amazon )

[Tao~]

Holds little value till digital media is not owner specific.

Plus, I would rather have equity in distribution than Apple and Microsoft make a killing

[FISKER_Q]

it was an EU problem not a german one, it also looks like a does not matter since you are buying a life time subscription for your account. i would love to be able to sell used steam games, but it also does not seam reasonable.

The same argument was actually used in the oracle case, and didn't hold up.

So they can't hide behind that argument that it's rented software, a service or similar.

[himaro]

while i have a metric banana tonne of games uninstalled on steam, many that wont be re-installed, i agree that steam should not be forced to allow people to sell them unless they're alloud to take a % cut from it.
Valve right now is profitable... very profitable. and they're reinvesting that money in risky experiments and technology that other investors would shy away from. it's something that should be encouraged. if everyone suddenly started selling there games without them seeing a penny for it, it would literally drive them out of business.

as for selling digital music and films... not even feesable. you could put it on your phone or copy it elsewhere. boom. system undone. you could save a fortune from buying, downloading, copying, selling original

[kromosto]

i am patenting the object and thing.

[JaD]

Please somebody do something. This is madness. What will be next?

Why is it madness exactly?
Currently, unlike physically distributed software, you're unable to resell digital goods for which you usually pay just as much. Amazon patented a way to allow end users to do just that: how is this madness and not good or fair to customers?
I used to sell every game I owned after uninstalling them. Now I have dozens of unneeded games listed in my steam library: I'd be more than glad to pass them on to some friends of mine and get some money back.

[El Mano]

Why is it madness exactly?
Currently, unlike physically distributed software, you're unable to resell digital goods for which you usually pay just as much. Amazon patented a way to allow end users to do just that: how is this madness and not good or fair to customers?
I used to sell every game I owned after uninstalling them. Now I have dozens of unneeded games listed in my steam library: I'd be more than glad to pass them on to some friends of mine and get some money back.

You kidding me? You don't need to patent e-commerce in order to allow users to sell their digital games. You just need to implement the functionality. You already can trade games on GMG, you could do so on Steam, Origin, etc if they wanted to.


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I do wish this is just a way to avoid some of the big trolls (Apple) from doing it. Time will tell.

[JaD]

Oh well, yeah I see your point but nowadays it's common practice to patent everything. Unless they use said patents to threaten the free market, I don't see a problem with it.
As of now it just seems to me as the first big player planning to do so, which should spring competitors to introduce similar systems.

[phantomferrari]

my guess this is just a counter patent in case anyone sues them for something silly they can sue right back. tell me how though patents like this are even granted!!