Monitoring digital content usage history to prevent digital content misuse

• US 10,430,560 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2016
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SR Labs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Screening Room Media, Inc.
• Inventors: Baldwin, James Armand, Akkaraju, Prem, Vanzini, Giorgio
• Primary Examiner(s): Giddins, Nelson
• Application Number:
  US15/344,376
• Publication Number:
  US 20170124302A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1078 Logging; Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/42 using separate channels for security data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1417 2D bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method for preventing digital content misuse can include receiving, by a digital content delivery system, a request from a client-side computing device to access digital content maintained by the digital content delivery system; determining, by the digital content delivery system, that a number of times the client-side computing device has accessed digital content meets or exceeds a threshold number of times the client-side computing device is permitted to access digital content; and in response to determining that the number of times the client-side computing device has accessed digital content meets or exceeds the threshold number, denying the request and executing a remedial action.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a digital content delivery system, a request from a first client-side computing device to initiate presentation of a first digital movie on a display device coupled to the first client-side computing device, the digital content delivery system facilitating presentation of multiple digital movies and maintaining a plurality of user accounts, each user account from the plurality of user accounts corresponding to a unique client-side computing device, wherein the first client-side computing device corresponds to the first user account maintained by the digital content delivery system;

in response to receiving the request, accessing a content usage history for the first user account, the content usage history indicating digital movies accessed by the first client-side computing device and timestamps indicating times at which the digital movies were accessed by the first client-side computing device;

determining, based on the content usage history of the first user account, a number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the first client-side computing device within a predetermined time period;

determining that the number of times that the first client-side computing device has accessed the first digital movie within the predetermined time period meets or exceeds a threshold number of times the client-side computing device is permitted to access the digital movie during any predetermined time period;

in response to determining that the number of times that the first client-side computing device has accessed the first digital movie meets or exceeds the threshold number, denying the request to initiate presentation of the first content item;

subsequently receiving, by the digital content delivery system, a second request from the first client-side computing device to initiate presentation of the first digital movie on the display device coupled to the first client-side computing device;

determining, based on the content usage history of the first user account, a number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the first client-side computing device within a second predetermined time period, the second predetermined time period occurring at least partially after the predetermined time period;

determining that the number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the first client-side computing device within a second predetermined time period does not meet or exceed the threshold number; and

initiating a stream of the first digit movie to the first client-side computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scanning social media activity of a user associated with the client-side computing device for postings made by the user that indicate that the user is allowing unauthorized access to the digital content.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

disabling the first client-side computing device from presenting digital movies.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second predetermined period of time is of equal length to the predetermined time period.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the digital content delivery system, a request from a second client-side computing device to initiate presentation of the first digital movie on a display device coupled to the second client-side computing device, the second client device corresponding to a second user account maintained by the digital content delivery system;

accessing a content usage history for the second user account, the content usage history indicating digital movies accessed by the second client-side computing device and timestamps indicating times at which the digital movies were accessed by the second client-side computing device;

determining, based on the content usage history of the second user account, a number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the second client-side computing device within a second predetermined time period;

determining that the number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the second client-side computing device within the second predetermined time period does not meet or exceed the threshold number; and

initiating a stream of the first digit movie to the second client-side computing device.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a command to allow presentation of the first digital movie on the first client-side computing device; and

in response to receiving the command, initiating a stream of the first digit movie to the first client-side computing device.

7. A digital content delivery system comprising:

one or more computer processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediums storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computer processors, cause the digital content delivery system to perform operations comprising;

receiving a request from a first client-side computing device to initiate presentation of a first digital movie on a display device coupled to the first client-side computing device, the digital content delivery system facilitating presentation of multiple digital movies and maintaining a plurality of user accounts, each user account from the plurality of user accounts corresponding to a unique client-side computing device, wherein the first client-side computing device corresponds to the first user account maintained by the digital content delivery system;

in response to receiving the request, accessing a content usage history for the first user account, the content usage history indicating digital movies accessed by the first client-side computing device and timestamps indicating times at which the digital movies were accessed by the first client-side computing device;

determining, based on the content usage history of the first user account, a number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the first client-side computing device within a predetermined time period;

determining that the number of times that the first client-side computing device has accessed the first digital movie within the predetermined time period meets or exceeds a threshold number of times the client-side computing device is permitted to access the digital movie during any predetermined time period;

in response to determining that the number of times that the first client-side computing device has accessed the first digital movie meets or exceeds the threshold number, denying the request to initiate presentation of the first content item;

subsequently receiving, by the digital content delivery system, a second request from the first client-side computing device to initiate presentation of the first digital movie on the display device coupled to the first client-side computing device;

determining, based on the content usage history of the first user account, a number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the first client-side computing device within a second predetermined time period, the second predetermined time period occurring at least partially after the predetermined time period;

determining that the number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the first client-side computing device within a second predetermined time period does not meet or exceed the threshold number; and

initiating a stream of the first digit movie to the first client-side computing device.

8. The digital content delivery system of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

scanning social media activity of a user associated with the client-side computing device for postings made by the user that indicate that the user is allowing unauthorized access to the digital content.

9. The digital content delivery system of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

disabling the first client-side computing device from presenting digital movies.

10. The digital content delivery system of claim 7, wherein the second predetermined period of time is of equal length to the predetermined time period.

11. The digital content delivery system of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

receiving a request from a second client-side computing device to initiate presentation of the first digital movie on a display device coupled to the second client-side computing device, the second client device corresponding to a second user account maintained by the digital content delivery system;

accessing a content usage history for the second user account, the content usage history indicating digital movies accessed by the second client-side computing device and timestamps indicating times at which the digital movies were accessed by the second client-side computing device;

determining, based on the content usage history of the second user account, a number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the second client-side computing device within a second predetermined time period;

determining that the number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the second client-side computing device within the second predetermined time period does not meet or exceed the threshold number; and

initiating a stream of the first digit movie to the second client-side computing device.

12. The digital content delivery system of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

receiving a command to allow presentation of the first digital movie on the first client-side computing device; and

in response to receiving the command, initiating a stream of the first digit movie to the first client-side computing device.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computer processors of a digital content delivery system, cause the digital content delivery system to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request from a first client-side computing device to initiate presentation of a first digital movie on a display device coupled to the first client-side computing device, the digital content delivery system facilitating presentation of multiple digital movies and maintaining a plurality of user accounts, each user account from the plurality of user accounts corresponding to a unique client-side computing device, wherein the first client-side computing device corresponds to the first user account maintained by the digital content delivery system;

in response to receiving the request, accessing a content usage history for the first user account, the content usage history indicating digital movies accessed by the first client-side computing device and timestamps indicating times at which the digital movies were accessed by the first client-side computing device;

determining, based on the content usage history of the first user account, a number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the first client-side computing device within a predetermined time period;

determining that the number of times that the first client-side computing device has accessed the first digital movie within the predetermined time period meets or exceeds a threshold number of times the client-side computing device is permitted to access the digital movie during any predetermined time period;

in response to determining that the number of times that the first client-side computing device has accessed the first digital movie meets or exceeds the threshold number, denying the request to initiate presentation of the first content item;

subsequently receiving, by the digital content delivery system, a second request from the first client-side computing device to initiate presentation of the first digital movie on the display device coupled to the first client-side computing device;

determining, based on the content usage history of the first user account, a number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the first client-side computing device within a second predetermined time period, the second predetermined time period occurring at least partially after the predetermined time period;

determining that the number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the first client-side computing device within a second predetermined time period does not meet or exceed the threshold number; and

initiating a stream of the first digit movie to the first client-side computing device.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising:

scanning social media activity of a user associated with the client-side computing device for postings made by the user that indicate that the user is allowing unauthorized access to the digital content.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising:

disabling the first client-side computing device from presenting digital movies.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the second predetermined period of time is of equal length to the predetermined time period.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising:

receiving a request from a second client-side computing device to initiate presentation of the first digital movie on a display device coupled to the second client-side computing device, the second client device corresponding to a second user account maintained by the digital content delivery system;

accessing a content usage history for the second user account, the content usage history indicating digital movies accessed by the second client-side computing device and timestamps indicating times at which the digital movies were accessed by the second client-side computing device;

determining, based on the content usage history of the second user account, a number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the second client-side computing device within a second predetermined time period;

determining that the number of times that the first digital movie has been accessed by the second client-side computing device within the second predetermined time period does not meet or exceed the threshold number; and

initiating a stream of the first digit movie to the second client-side computing device.