While we're asking, what else can Amazon tell us about the future of online selling?
As one commentator noted, online selling of digital goods was well underway before the Patent Office issued the Sharing Sound patent.
FORBES: Patent Troll Forces Online Music Sellers and Buyers to Pay a Toll
"Many are now remote sellers, using sites such as eBay as well as their own online selling, " said David Moir, spokesman for the association.
We had mastered the new model for online selling, but had to work backwards and emulate the techniques of the veteran dealers to complete the picture.
MarkMonitor's Fred Felman agrees that while manufacturers and online selling sites could be more vigilant about tracking recalled products, the burden of protecting children from toxic toys falls on the consumer.
That's why the newest version of TurboTax groups users into seven industries: real estate, online selling (think eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) sellers), construction, freelance artists, professional services (programmers, computer consultants), child-care providers and a generic catch-all bucket.
They make their money by creating things online and selling them for cash.
Think Jeff Bezos at Amazon.com building an online book selling business in a world of brick and mortar booksellers.
The current situation is that, inclusive of sales tax, your local brick-and-mortar store may have to charge as much as 9 or 10 percent more than an online retailer selling the same item.
Competitors selling online stand to make higher margins than those selling through retail outlets.
Although some are charging subscription fees to players of online games or selling advertising, many of them make most of their money by managing an online economy, complete with virtual goods and a digital currency.
And yet Facebook makes most of its revenue simply selling online real estate for ads.
FORBES: What Facebook's Flop Means For Technology IPOs Later This Year
Google is expected to surpass rival Facebook in selling online "display" advertisements in the U.S. this year.
That means gigabytes of data that can be used to streamline the business of buying and selling online.
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Apple has spoken to government officials about changing restrictions that prevent it from selling online, a government official says.
Its vast online shop, selling much more than books, may be a draw.
Someone, anyone, offering you a free service online must be selling you, or your time, your interest, to someone else.
And whereas Google has focused on selling online advertising to companies, both Apple and Amazon have a history of pitching to consumers.
ECONOMIST: The web giant launches a rival to Apple��s iTunes
"Selling online ads is not a typical business for Microsoft, " Rosoff says.
"These kind of criminal businesses are drawn to selling online for the same reasons as legitimate businesses, " says Fred Felman, a spokesman for MarkMonitor.
The moves allow carmakers to make online entertainment a selling point.
More recently, Yahoo grappled with the rise of Facebook while failing to establish a big footprint in mobile devices and new methods of selling online ads.
Three of the biggest theater chains not selling online tickets for a massive (and probably somewhat front-loaded) franchise picture could theoretically make a dent in its opening weekend.
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Add-on innovations should make buying and selling online even easier.
The problem, say Winn and Power, wasn't the strategy of selling online at cut-rate prices--it was the failure to implement Winn's revolutionary retailing vision and to utilize his talents.
FORBES: Internet hype survives even when the dot-com doesn't.
Google, the developer of the world's most popular Internet search engine, generates billions of dollars in revenues annually from selling online advertising services, including the delivery of targeted ads online.
Under the name MC Yogi, Mr. Giacomini began writing, recording and selling online yoga-centric rap songs, such as "Be the Change, " a hip-hop telling of the story of Mahatma Gandhi.
He's grown Vinabook to 200, 000 customers in five years, and following the lead of Dangdang, aims to become his market's leading online retailer, selling not just books but also software, movies, music and calendars.
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