John Ossenmacher

The New York Times ran an interesting and fairly informative feature story on March 7; it covers the digital publishing industry’s current digital resale controversy, which was sparked largely by the work of John Ossenmacher, the founder and CEO of ReDigi — a company that refers to itself as ‘The World’s First Pre-Owned Digital Marketplace.’ The story [...]

The post The digital resale controversy, in the New York Times appeared first on TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics.

On January 29, Amazon Technologies Inc. received a patent pertaining to the "secondary market for digital objects." According to the patent abstract, the technology will enable Amazon customers to transfer -- and presumably sell -- e-books, MP3s, and other digital files to other customers. And, Apple too has filed for patents on the transfer of owned digital items.

The whole issue of used digital goods is a big one, with far-reaching implications for media in general, but music and publishing in particular.

While several companies have entered the fray…

There is no such thing as a dog-eared e-book — each copy is forever perfect. But a new Amazon patent could go a long way toward making the digital media in our lives a lot more like the physical version.

Last week, Amazon patented a way to sell “used” e-books, music, videos, apps and other “digital objects.” The marketplace described in the patent would let such exchanges take place by cutting off the seller’s access to a piece of digital content once the buyer paid.

More Blogs