Amazon Patents Deducing Religion From Gift Wrap 164
theodp writes "If you're the giver or recipient of presents gift-wrapped by Amazon, you may want to take a gander at U.S. Patent No. 8,060,463, granted to Amazon last month for Mining of User Event Data to Identify Users with Common Interests. Among other things, Amazon explains the invention can be used to identify recipients of gifts as Christian or Jewish based on wrapping paper. From the patent: 'The gift wrap used by such other users when purchasing gifts for this user, such as when the gift wrap evidences the user's religion (in the case of Christmas or Hanukkah gift wrap, for example.)'"
Right... (Score:5, Funny)
... because no Jew would ever buy presents for their Christian friends, or vice-versa...
Re:Right... (Score:4, Insightful)
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I think that the patent system that applies here allows perpetual motion machines to be considered iff (if-and-only-if) they are accompanied by a working model. Which would be dangerous, since some designs for perpetual motion machines may involve positive feedback loops, which could turn them into weapons of mass destruction. Seriously mass destruction : more Big Bang than "Little Boy" or "Fat Man".
I don't know about your
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Well, if they did it wouldn't been the first time I was amazed at someone's skillful hack. I'm still trying to figure out how Aramok knows the lyrics to a song I sampled fron vinyl, burned to CD, then ripped to ogg; I would have thought that not possible either.
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No, Christmas isnt really an exclusively christian holiday. I dont know if you can set a year when it changed, or if it ever truly has been since it took off in the US (it wasnt a big deal during the revolutionary war, except for the Germans), but Christmas today is a hybrid holiday-- it is for christians a celebration of Christ's birth, and for others a traditional celebration of family, friends, and togetherness.
A very good friend of mine-- an athiest-- is right now celebrating Christmas with his family,
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What we need is a Festivus for the rest of us!
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It's about determining what kind of crap a person will buy; they really don't care why they are buying it. If a Jew buys Christians presents on Amazon then there is a good chance they will be interested in buying more Christians presents on Amazon in the future and marketing can help make that happen.
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The patent is about inferring the religion of person B based on the wrapping paper person A uses for a gift he buys for person B.
It doesn't matter whether person A in the above scenario is Jewish, unless you think he would use Hanukkah-themed wrapping paper for Christmas gifts for his Christian friends.
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True enough, let's not forget that most of the big christmas songs that are popular were written by Jews too.
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but it is not the same, they are patenting doing this with only one click :)
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If only there was a word for the faculty of making judgements before knowing all the facts. If only.
There isn't. There's a word for "harming someone based on some superficial characteristic" and that word sounds a lot like pre-judging, but isn't about pre-judging, it's about basing treatment of others based on a pre-judgment. Sometimes that's benign (I'm prejudiced that the guy driving the bus is the bus driver, and I don't bother to check ID every time I get on a bus), and sometimes not. I wouldn't consider targeted advertising (recommendations) as "bigoted" unless it's overtly associated (i.e. not ju
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s/ho/ay/g
Religion of giver? (Score:3, Insightful)
Shouldn't that be the religion of the receiver ?
(Unless it is really unimaginable for Amazon that people give presents across religious and ethnical boundaries.)
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Not even that. My mother converted from Judaism to Catholicism a long time ago, so we celebrate both holidays. I also have atheist and Buddhist friends whom I occasionally buy Christmas presents for, as Christmas has long since ceased to be a truly religious holiday. (I like the Futurama solution of calling the non-religious holiday Xmas, but I don't see it catching on.)
And really, why does Amazon even want this information? Are they going to stop showing me ads for Dawkins polemics because someone sent
Can you guess? (Score:2)
Where does Thomas the Tank Engine fit in?
Dumbasses. (Score:1)
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Satanist, perhaps is small error. But I think a lot of functional athiests continue to celebrate the holidays they grew up with even if they don't believe in the religious nonsense behind it. This describes almost anyone I know through work or school (although not my family, who finds this idea offensive, and we just don't talk about it), as well as the Sikh family I was standing behind in line to get pictures of my son with Santa.
My kids are growing up with Santa and the Easter bunny, the whole deal. It do
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Satanists don't give presents. Unless it's a letterbomb.
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I would think a Satanist would give a gift meant to instill doubt in the mind of the receiver, or something that would tempt them into hell's domain, like a few hits of crack..
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Christians would all love to see everyone get to heaven, would a Satanist not want to see everyone in hell?
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Find some nicer Satanist friends. My Satanist friends have given me presents in the past - a nice half-bottle of whisky from one, and a blowjob from the other. Though what she wanted to do with the semen, I never did ask.
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Satanists don't give presents. Unless it's a letterbomb.
You must be confused. Currently, it's extremists Muslims who kill in the name of their religion. Used to be the Xtians. Satanists, and I mean the real, card-carrying deal, never have. Mind you, I am not an apologist for Satanists. There a bunch of goofy, deluded, histrionic losers, if you ask me, but slaughtering innocents in the name of a religious cause is pretty much against their "religion".
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Somehow you managed to be ignorant of both Satanism and Christianity all in one post. Bravo.
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That's basically the same religion. Same pantheon, different temple. You're a Christian (or close enough).
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You realize Satanists don't actually worship or even believe in the existence of Satan, right? They're basically anti-Christians, not only disbelieving the factuality of Christian claims, but more emphatically disputing the moral lessons of it, which they consider authoritarian and submissive, in favor of a more individualistic moral code. They just use an alternate character interpretation of the "villain" from their opponents' stories to make that point.
Compare (though it's not a perfect analogue) the use
Satanless Satanism (Score:2)
No, I didn't know that, and I find that to be disappointing. A Satanless Satanism has no charm at all. If I were a Satanist, I would schism the religion immediately and declare the Satan-deniers to be infidels. You gotta have the horned 'n' hoofed guy, for the artwork alone! I used to think Satanism was a reaction to lame religions, but it sounds like they managed to out-lame their parents.
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This is why I have to delve into fiction to find a decent religion. The Cthulhu Cult believes in their guy, so they get to make idols. Old wizard Whateley and Joseph Curwen know Yog-Sothoth is real, because the spells work. A Satanless Satanism -- that's just fucked up. Satanists, WTF are you guys thinking?! Get with it and don't tell me "they change what it is." It was you. You changed.
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Or for arse-wipes?
I know, I know ; it's not very absorbent, it doesn't separate conveniently into useful size sheets, and it tends to form sharp-edged creases which can be ... irritating ... after a week of eating and drinking too much and getting "over doing it diarrhoea". Better to stick to (ouch!) those packets of shit-wipe that get left in hotel rooms. At least they're in convenient rip-out packages. They're getting rarer though - does anyone
I guess that (Score:3)
Atheists, Agnostics, and members of other religions don't give Christmas presents ?
BTW I am not a Christian
And who wants to pay more for gift wrsp than for shipping?
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When he uses the term "Agnosticism" to discuss a belief system, it is just as correct to capitalize it as it would be for Stoicism, Hinduism, Platonicism, Nietzscheism, or Pantheism.
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I'd guess that atheists and agnostics will pick less religous themed wrapping paper more often. This year I wrapped gifts with yellow, purple, green and silver striped paper. None of this is supposed to be perfect of course. But as long as you have a statistically significant trend, you can do better than random guessing which is all you can really ask.
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I'm going to punt at fewer than the number of christians who bought stuff without gift wrapping and then wrapped it themselves.
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Some of us don't do gift wrap at all. The wrapping used by UPS, Fedex, and/or the USPS is good enough. Plain brown paper, with a name and address printed on it. Or, plain brown cardboard, or a red-white-and-blue mailer. What, I'm going to UNwrap something, just to REwrap it in pretty paper? To hell with that! I may possibly tape a bow onto the package that UPS delivers.
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The presents under your christmas tree must look really pretty. Plain brown boxes and all.
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atheists are pussies. PAGANS IS WHERE IT'S AT! TAKE BACK XMAS!
stupid caps filter. so have to have filler here, like gift box filler.
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If I were a serious Christian, I would be boycotting Christmas. It's a Christianization (and poorly) of an ancient Northern European solstice celebration and fertility orgy. The tree, the Yule log, the lights? None of these things have anything to do with your Christ. You should be embarrassed if you ever thought so.
Thats just not true.
Christmas became a bigger deal in the US in the 18th and 19th centuries (1870s, I believe) when Germans brought the tradition over to the US.
In the middle ages in Germany [wikipedia.org], a "paradise tree" was erected by the church; eventually the tradition expanded to include hanging sweets on the tree for children. Its origins are uncertain, but according to wikipedia came from an older christian tradition.
Im fairly certain that electric multicolored lights arent a pagan tradition.
As a christian, I h
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Well, The whole idea was to get large groups of people to switch from their pagan religion to the Christian. Greatest, easiest way to do that? Gradually. By co-opting the date and some of the existing traditions the new religion goes down easier. Soon, people aren't worshipping mother earth, but Jesus Christ. And isn't that the whole idea if you want to spread Christianity? Even furthermore, If there is only one God, the father, son, and holy spirit, then all religions share a portion of truth as they worsh
Non-obvious? (Score:3)
Re:Non-obvious? (Score:4, Insightful)
Clearly, deducing that somebody is Jewish because they bought Hanukkah wrapping paper is a brilliant invention worthy of the full protective power of the United States government and international intellectual property treaties. How else is America going to survive in the information age?
Let me restate: figuring out that somebody is Jewish because they bought wrapping paper with Jewish stars on it IS STEALING. You wouldn't steal a car or a DVD, would you?
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Clearly, deducing that somebody is Jewish because they bought Hanukkah wrapping paper is a brilliant invention worthy of the full protective power of the United States government and international intellectual property treaties. How else is America going to survive in the information age?
This one seems like one of the safest useless patents ever. I seriously doubt any of Amazon's competitors would ever infringe on this one either unintentionally or knowingly, since it is so idiotic.
The net result of this is that the patent office got a nice little fee, and Amazon got nothing useful in return (by their own choosing).
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Patents are supposed to be for inventions and implementations, not theories and generic "business ideas."
The US patent system is so stacked against the individual developer and in favour of the established conglomerate that I decided a long time ago that I would never open a US office for my business. Instead, I'll let US companies establish partnerships to deliver services to the US market under their own branding, and let them deal with the US legal nightmare. All contracts will be signed on Canadian
Stealing? (wasRe:Non-obvious?) (Score:2)
I would've thought using datamining to determine who is Jewish should be compared to the Nazis.
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They don't check validity anymore (Score:2)
Surely (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, I'm one of the apparent minority who tend to adhere to the concept that privacy is still a right.
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This is an AMAZING invention! The world of science will be thrilled! Truly a giant leap for mankind! This was EXACTLY the progress in useful arts and science which the forefathers intended when they wrote the constitution!
Seriously, is the USPTO smoking crack? If not, the only explanation is that the USPTO is a corrupt institution.
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But if they are smoking crack, well then, clearly they are not corrupt.
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Of course, I'm one of the apparent minority who tend to adhere to the concept that privacy is still a right.
It's a right in the sense that you have it by Nature, and it can be invaded (that FBI camera in your bathroom) but it can also be given away, even by third-parties (in this case).
The in-person corollary is your brother walks into a store, says, "here, please wrap this gift in menorah paper and mail it to my brother Sid at 123 Main Street...". He's given away your privacy to the clerk. Same for Amazo
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I can't be the only one who finds the idea of patents for " Mining of User... Data to Identify User[s]" a bit unnerving.... Of course, I'm one of the apparent minority who tend to adhere to the concept that privacy is still a right.
From a privacy perspective, patents like this are a good thing. Why? Because if individual companies systematically lock up the rights to invade your privacy in various ways (assuming this is an invasion), then they'll all be restricted to violating your privacy in only the ways they have patented. The only legal way for them to violate other aspects of your privacy is to cross-license from or collaborate with the competition. This would slow innovation in privacy violation as much as it does in other a
Ermm... (Score:5, Insightful)
... you can really patent something that basically reads, "Using a feature to help in set classification"?
About ready to say scrap the entire patent system - at least when it comes to software. It's not like it protects the actual inventors any more at all.
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... you can really patent something that basically reads, "Using a feature to help in set classification"?
About ready to say scrap the entire patent system - at least when it comes to software. It's not like it protects the actual inventors any more at all.
Are you kidding? This is proof that the patent system rocks. It will generate law-firm billable hours, licensing revenue, and patent filing fees. Talk about growing the economy!
Religious symbolism? (Score:1)
How many religious symbols can you really find on gift-wrapping anyway? Remember that Christmas trees are not particularly Christian; they're a pagan survival, and here in predominantly Muslim Turkey you can see loads of them put up for New Year celebrations. Angels? Found in several religions. Yule logs? Decidedly pagan. Holly? Super-pagan. Snowmen? Just plain weird.
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Christmas trees are, as far as documentation goes, not a pagan survival, they only appeared about 500 years ago in Southwest Germany. At this time, Southwest Germany was christianized for 1000 years already. Nice tradition though.
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No. This ist just making up history for the sake of it.
The court records of people being convicted and killed because of paganism are there, and there is no evidence of someone being convicted because of a decorated tree.
In the 19th century, it was en vogue to find local roots for about any tradition one could think of, and especially english and german authors were eager to reinterpret about anything catholic (and thus roman) as being derived from celtic or german origins. Many of those speculations are st
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Then why is there a Bible verse banning them?
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There is a verse banning cutting down trees and carving idols out of them. Some people with reading problems interpret this as cutting down trees and decorating them.
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There ain't nothing about carving it in KJV
So what does lime green wrapping paper signify? (Score:2)
Because that's what my wife selected last year when she bought me a gift from Amazon one year.
I really can't see any religion being tied to that
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Because that's what my wife selected last year when she bought me a gift from Amazon one year.
Since when do you get to pick the color when you select 'gift wrapped by Amazon'? Do they even hire people to wrap things or does some contraption with robotic arms do it?
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Re:So what does lime green wrapping paper signify? (Score:4, Funny)
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Rastafarian? I know some Rastas and they LOVE their green...
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Aha! (Score:3)
So that's what that Marilyn Chambers movie was about.
"A Method for Detection of Extramarital Affairs" (Score:4, Funny)
. . . "Based on the Sending of Kinky Sexual Gifts to Non-spousal Persons."
" . . . hmmm . . . let's see what the mayor is sending to other females besides his wife . . . "
There's plenty more gold to be monetized in that Amazon mine.
Ordered copies of "Armed Insurrections for Dummies" . . . ? "Cooking Crack in Your Bathtub for Fun and Profit" . . . ?
FSM? (Score:2)
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Knitted spaghetti, squamous lasagna or (for small items) cannelloni.
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Goatse wrapping paper (see upthread) with a strategically placed mound of spaghetti to ... umm ... enhance the appearance of the meat ... balls.
Yeuch.
I'll use it for sending presents to politicians. And priests.
Other Amazon Patents... (Score:5, Insightful)
Determining religion by presence or absence of circumcision.
Determining gender by presence or lack of a penis.
Determining age by birth date.
Determining quantity by how many of an item is present.
and my favorite...
Determining the failure of the US patent system by filing stupid patents.
That's it. (Score:3)
to throw it all off I'm going to use Jewish wrapping paper to wrap pressed ham in a can, or Christian wrapping paper to wrap books about evolution or by Christopher Hitchens.
I wonder... (Score:2)
I wonder if that includes figuring out whether or not it was purchased from the bargain bin at Target... ??
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bargain bin
For some reason, I first read that as 'garbage bin'.
Be crafty (Score:2)
This is why I had the goat leggings I purchased wrapped in Hanukkah gift paper and topped with a big red and green bow.
Patent Smart Phone Sales Person Software (Score:2)
Discrimination based on religion (Score:3)
Sneaky sneaky... (Score:2)
This is obviously just a distraction to throw off other (r)e-tailers towards the much more useful (but too obvious to be patented) kungfu of forcing people to choose between a handful of options (two in this case) and then categorizing them based on that!
Next up, using pizza chains to do marketing demographic research: Would you like a free Coke or Pepsi with your delivery?
How to mess up Amazon's computers (Score:2)
Deduction? (Score:2)
Miami Beach? Not hardly. (Score:2)
So what about the ubiquitous 'snowflake' wraps out there? Or the colored plaid ones? Or the ones with candles on them?
Does blue and white mean Jewish, even if it's a Swedish flag? Does green and red mean Christmas even if it's on a chili pepper? Candles must mean a menorah right?
If I want them to wrap it in plain brown paper, are they going to assume I'm a Buddhist?
What complete and utter nonsense and tripe.
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If I want them to wrap it in plain brown paper, are they going to assume I'm a Buddhist?
No, they're going to assume you're ordering vibrators and blow up dolls. Your Amazon suggestions are going to get really disturbing soon.
I'm not impressed! (Score:2)
this is an Invention? (Score:2)
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After reading yet another silly patent abstract, I cannot find anything worth patenting in it...
Well, there's your problem. Abstracts are not the claims, and do not need to be novel or non-obvious by themselves. That is the job of the claims.
From US Patent 8060463 [uspto.gov]
The first claim:
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Or perhaps "appreciate" would be a better word.
That's a challenge - I'd have to find suitable stock paper, and steal one of the big printers at work ... or would I? An A3 sheet should do the job (sorry) OK.
That is a challenge to work towards.
I'll ask Amazon.
Google doesn't admit to it's existence. Yet.
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"Is it possible for a company to blame a computer based system for making stereotypical choices"?
Sure. It's possible for a company (or individual humans) to blame a computer for anything, even something that no computer can do. People blame computers for their own mistakes (and intentional actions) all the time.