Forum - View topicNEWS: Amazon Patents "Used" Digital Market
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PBsallad
 Posts: 338 Location: Phoenix |
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Very interesting. I could be wrong, but Green Man Gaming has something similar. You can buy and download games from them, then later trade them in for store credit. That code is then re-sold as pre-owned.
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Meygaera
 Posts: 324 Location: Maryland |
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The first generation of attempts to make downloadable content more "physical"?
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Kalessin
 Posts: 931 |
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Most patents are just plain ridiculous at this point - and this one certainly is. What on earth is innovative about selling something which has been used just because it happens to be digital instead of physical? Nothing. But the patent office will give out patents for most anything these days. It would be so nice if we could have some serious patent reform. At this point, it's so bad that it would arguably be far better to have no patents at all. *Sigh*
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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There's too much money involved in the current Patent / Copyright regime, I.E. in any sane world Mickey Mouse would be public domain but Disney will fight like mad daemons before that would happen.
Any reform would have to pushed thru against serious opposition. So, we will likely suffer with the present silliness until the system breaks down entirely. Mark Gosdin |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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terminus24
 Posts: 304 |
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I could see how this could work on a service like Amazon Instant Video, where you purchase something, but can't download it. I don't see this working on anything downloadable, as you can copy those things to flash drives, CDs, and other computers. For example, if I sold half my iTunes library, I wouldn't lose anything, as I've burnt a bunch of my library to CDs through iTunes.
Anyways, what the hell is the difference between new digital and used digital? The video/music/whatever starts where the last person left off? |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7399 Location: Maine |
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Nothing, really, but it's nice to see Amazon is trying to find a way around the entertainment industry's little war on the secondary (used) market. Sony and Microsoft are in for a rude awakening if their next consoles really don't allow used games. Emerje |
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formerroadie1
 Posts: 126 Location: Fort Worth, TX |
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That has to be the stupidest thing I've ever seen?
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Sheleigha
 Posts: 1674 |
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I still think the idea of "used" digital goods being the silliest concept ever. That's like, considering a torrent or something "used" information since it's been through other people :/
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ajr
Posts: 465 |
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This mostly makes sense. When I buy a book, CD, or movie, I'm essentially purchasing a license for the right to view said media product. At least, that's how things have shifted to since home video recorders entered the market. If the physical good is no longer really part of the equation, why shouldn't the license be transferable, for profit or otherwise?
Although, I guess it's odd to patent such a thing, since it should already sort of exist in a legal sense. Hopefully said patent just covers software used for that purpose? I don't know if they should have been granted it, otherwise... |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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This article has a few more details of how it works, for those who are interested.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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I like it. When it comes to games, these days I buy pretty much everything digitally, and the one regret I've had about it is that if I don't really wind up liking a game, I'm just out $50 and that's that. Being able to "trade" stuff I don't like or won't play for credit toward something new like I used to be able to do when I bought physical games would be great.
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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I've had the Android Flixster app on my Nook Color and my cheap chinese 7" tablet say it cannot download movies because the device is rooted, while it will download movies to my 4.3" Android player that is NOT rooted. So I assume downloads of that kind of content would be licensed under terms along those lines ~ it can't be downloaded to user-accessible storage.
The only substantial differences to the used digital purchaser is that they cannot buy it on release day but have to wait until somebody has sold their digital title back, and availability is limited to the number of copies sold back. |
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Kalessin
Posts: 931 |
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The idea is fine. It's the fact that they're patenting it that make no sense. It fails miserably on the "non-obvious" and "innovative" fronts. It's merely taking an idea that's been around for ages and applying it to stuff that's purely digital. And if anything, the fact that Amazon patented it might impede other companies from implementing this sort of scheme, because they don't want to pay fees or deal with huge cost of getting sued (even if they could win). The fact that it was patented doesn't help the consumer in the least. |
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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Amazon is freaking smart. I guess amazon will kill of gamestop soon.
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