I Won’t Even Say It, Amazon, ‘Cause You Never Listen to Me Anyway
Why can’t anyone bring useful patents to market, like this one?
Given Amazon’s refusal to listen to my scolding, as if Jeff Bezos doesn’t even care about my opinion, I shouldn’t bother saying anything. But there is a lot of buzz about Amazon’s recent patent for a system of re-selling “used” ebooks, so what the heck. I wonder if it is worth getting so concerned about “or calling it “poised” as Publisher’s Weekly does, given the fact that with the ridiculous patent system in this country it is literally possible to patent anything (and I use the word “literally” advisedly).
Still, the worrisome thing is that, like seemingly everything Amazon does these days, the move seems designed less to make profits than it is to make sure other people don’t. (at any rate, in this case, one suspects the real goal is more a backdoor move to make sure DRM stays healthy, else how could they keep track of when the electrons have been used). I don’t think they mean to screw over writers when this happens, as they intend to screw over other publishers and tube sock manufacturers or local bookstores or whoever their Sauron-like gaze falls on, but that seems to always be a side effect.