Slashdot Mirror
Bezos Seeks Amazon Honor System-Related Patents
theodp writes "When Amazon's Honor System debuted, some questioned if Amazon would try to patent it. More than 18 months later, the USPTO has provided the answer with the 8-29 publication of patent applications 20020120568 ("User-to-user payment service with payee-specific pay pages") and 20020120567 ("Hosted services for collecting payments from and providing personalized content to web site visitors"). Both list Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as an inventor and use the Amazon Honor System to illustrate a commercial implementation of the inventions." Hmm...wouldn't eBay's point system be prior art in this situation?
Yep. Amazon makes lots of money, so they must be *EEEEVVVVVIIIIIILLLLLLLLLL*. So remember kids, don't buy from Amazon, or your puppy will be consumed in flames of eternal hellfire.
That e-gold is inconvenient and expensive to use. Because 99% of what you want doesn't accept e-gold, you have to change it to and from dollars pretty much as often as you transfer it.
In part due to the "free market" in exchange services and in part due to the nature of gold trading, this is 1) a huge pain in the ass, 2) risky as hell, because e-gold attracts frauds like shit attracts flies, and 3) bloody expensive.
Furthermore, the interface is primitive and inconvenient.
Getting set up and funded to make your first payment would probably take you at least 4 hours of effort and several days or weeks of waiting.
Finally, e-gold accepts contractual obligation for neither reasonable access to their offered service nor withdrawal of your metal (except in arbitrarily large numbers of gold bars, at their discretion). To make life even easier for them, it's incorporated in a tiny Carribean island country. Basically, if they decide to become unhelpful for whatever reason, you have no way to get your money out of them.
Gee, where the fuck do I sign up?