ReDigi patents a "copy-less" digital content resale model

I love the concept of reselling your digital assets. Bought a bunch of songs you no longer care for? Resell them. Ebooks you've read and have no use for? Resell them. The used CD and bookstore model that works in the physical world will definitely be a vibrant component of the digital content world. 

I've written about ReDigi before and today these pioneers of digital content resale have some terrific news to report: theyv'e been awarded a patent for their unique method of "copy-less" digital content resale. You can read the whole press release here but this is the key excerpt:

ReDigi’s patented technology provides significant opportunities to unlock the full value of digital content by creating a system and method for the resale of that content without actually having to make a copy.

Selling "used" digital content is a tricky concept for some people to accept. After all, an MP3 or an ebook can be copied endlessly, so how can there be a single version of it that can be sold by me and bought by you?

I believe ReDigi has the answer to that question and, more importantly, we'll all be reselling and buying much of our digital content through ReDigi (or ReDigi-powered services).

My biggest hope now is that someone like Amazon doesn't come along and swoop these guys up. After all, reselling digital content shouldn't be locked into a walled garden.

Comments

[UMS]

I'm a big supporter of ReDigi. Looking forward to watching this market expand.

[Jon Renaut]

If they really aren't making a copy and are ensuring that any other copies you might have made are deleted when you resell, then the file containing the content must live completely within ReDigi's software. There's no technical way around that. So that means that you've traded one walled garden for another.

Maybe ReDigi will be better for content creators and customers, maybe not. I'm not terribly optimistic.

[John Ossenmacher]

Hi Jon, I was reading your comment and just thought I would chime in. To some degree you are correct but there are several technical advancements that have allowed us to create a "living" file, we will publish more on that later and I am hoping you will find those advancements very ingenious. Regarding creators and customers; the ReDigi platform was built from the ground up with a 360 approach to owners and creators, you will see with the evolution of releases in our service that, in the marketplace; owners and creators become completely intertwined in a very cool social and interactive environment. Regarding the benefit to customers; unlike some of those other services that you may be referring to, our growing base is founded on the basic principle of buyers and sellers interacting with "EACH OTHER" not big brother, but solely to the benefit of themselves and the magnificent people who created the works in the first place. Through ReDigi owners can now take their digital files that had absolutely no economic value and create significant economic value in the marketplace. Thanks for your thoughts, John Ossenmacher, Founder ReDigi