Apple Presents a Patent System For Buying And Selling iTunes 2nd Hand Digital Content

We’re living in a digital world these days, and more and more of our music and video is being consumed via online methods. Apple’s iTunes is one of the forerunners when it comes to offering music, movies and indeed TV shows to customers all over the globe. Even today though, there are some people who don’t want to buy their content online and would rather pick up CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays instead.

If you talk to these people, one of the main reasons for their reluctance to buy online content is the fact that they can’t sell that content at a later date. Being able to move discs on has created a vibrant 2nd-hand market for all manner of content, but that’s just not possible if you buy from iTunes, for example.

In order to help ease such concerns, Apple has patented a new system that would make it possible for people to buy and sell 2nd-hand content at will, removing possibly the last roadblock to online content domination and perhaps putting the final nail in the coffin for solid state distribution.

The patent itself allows for content to be moved between users, with the rights to play that content being transferred along with it. This would allow for authentication to play that content to be switched from the seller, to the buyer. Importantly, there would also be a revenue model which would see a a portion of the sale money going to the copyright holder – something that has always been a stumbling block when it comes to such ideas.

Interestingly, Apple is not the only retailer of digital content to peruse the idea of offering a 2nd-hand market. Amazon, too, has its own patent for such a system, with the addition of the ability to lock content after it has changed hands a given number of times.

Both Apple and Amazon know that content is the key to keeping users within their own ecosystems, be that iTunes or Amazon’s own solution. Offering the ability to sell that content on to other users could see more skeptical people trying out the wares on offer by both Apple and Amazon and as a result, hardware sales could increase.

With that in mind it’s not difficult to see the motivation for Apple here, but as always, it will need the green light from copyright holders before anything gets pushed out into the market.

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Apple v Amazon Court Case Judge Ordered Settlement Discussion

Apple and Amazon are fighting over made up words, as you may well be aware. Apple takes issue with Amazon’s use of “Appstore,” the name for the online retailer’s marketplace of Android software, which came after Apple had already been using its own App Store branding for a mobile apps market for a couple of years. A judge now says that before the issue actually goes to trial in August, the two will have to try to hammer things out via settlement, according to AllThingsD.

Already, there has been some movement in the case this year. A judge ruled previously that Apple’s claims of false advertising related to the Appstore name were unmerited. Where Apple had believed that by using the name, Amazon was implying that its product was sponsored by or affiliated with Apple. Amazon, on the other hand, claimed the matter at hand is simply standard an allegation of trademark infringement, and the judge in the case agreed, finding that there was “no evidence that a consumer who accesses the Amazon Appstore would expect that it would be identical to the Apple APP STORE,” due mostly to the fact that Apple sells software for iOS while Amazon sells it exclusively for Android-based devices.

In the new court order issued Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte says the two will have to attend a settlement discussion on March 21, with executives present who are in a position to be able to negotiate a binding agreement. But although they must try, there’s no guarantee they’ll actually reach a resolution, and in fact, I suspect the more likely outcome is that we will indeed see the trial go forward on August 19 as planned.

This is a fight that has been going on for two years now, and it has involved more than just Apple and Amazon. The interesting thing to watch will be how damages are assigned if any clear victor emerges from these proceedings; two years’ worth of mobile software sales means Apple could be in for a large settlement, should Amazon indeed be found to have been in the wrong. [TechCrunch]

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