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Amazon Patents Gift Card Parental Controls
theodp writes "On Tuesday, Amazon received a patent on 'Customizing Gift Instrument Experiences for Recipients', which allows a gift card giver to not only recommend items via the gift card but also to restrict the types of things the card can be used to buy — and to get a report back on what the recipient purchases. From the patent: 'The rules could also specify that the available media be constrained by a rating, such as a parental rating (e.g. G, PG, PG-13, R, etc.) or media that excludes explicit lyrics or language. In other examples, the gift instrument purchaser directs that the gift instrument can only be redeemed for books (e.g., not video games), books of a selected genre (e.g., romance, action, historical, etc.), books having a selected author, etc.'"
oh god, not again... to be fair, at least this one requires more than one click
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
Really, isn't this just an obvious extension? What is patentable about age related permissions or permissions in general. I don't see anything all that novel in this. Ridiculous.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
A simple, trivial, and most likely non-unique idea that has nothing to do with an invention -- perfect for a patent.
This reminds me of Christmas and birthdays as a child, eagerly opening the cards from generous relatives in the hope of finding money, and often discovering only Book Tokens inside.
If you were really lucky and you caught the part time staff on a Saturday, sometimes they let you buy an LP or an audio cassette, even through they were only meant to exchange the tokens for actual books
Philosopher (n) - a wise person who is calm and rational; someone who lives a life of reason with equanimity
I'm a bit surprised that Amazon made it past prior art. Although not applied to gifts(because those are, y'know, supposed to please the recipient) similar prepaid-purchase-widget-with-restrictions capabilities show up in some POS systems for paternalistic applications. This one, for instance, is designed to automate K-12 cafeteria systems, and allows parents to impose restrictions on the use of stored funds. And, of course, various welfare schemes have been using payment-instrument-with-limitations-on-use scrip of various flavors for pretty much as long as they have existed.
Amazon's idea seems novel only in that it is applied to people you ostensibly like, rather than children or paupers...
I'm going to patent scratching my arse, breathing, drinking liquid and showering. Then you'll all have to pay up! Is my comment childish? Of course, just like the real patent system. How the fuck does this shit fly in the real world? How do It's plain to see in the last few decades we've gone from a vibrant growing society to a society in decline. We deserve it. Collectively we've become retarded. Supposedly intelligent learned people are supporting this stupidity as a way to protect innovation and reward innovators. They completely ignore the reality that this does not work AT ALL in the modern world.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I'm sure this will be marketed as wholesome as apple pie "think of the children" holier than thou for christmas, but can it be repurposed for Valentines day to only allow the purchase of triple X videos or triple X toys? This could be kind of fun.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Print your own home made cards and give cash. That way you're not giving the gift of an expiring piece of plastic or paper which may or may not be honoured depending on how the company that issued it is traded. Gift cards are for suckers...err I mean unsecured creditors.
Here in Australia when a couple of the big retail book chains got into trouble they just decided to not honour gift cards or honour only if you bought matching value, and they severely curtailed the time for which the cards were valid. I didn't get bitten but that was because I always knew such BS was possible. Any time I get a gift card I try to spend it immediately.
Gift cards are a scam and should be made illegal.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
How does this advance the technical arts? Patents are supposed to advance the technical arts but I don't see how technology is improved by this patent.