Digital media reproduction and licensing

• US 10,650,120 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2018
• Issued: 05/12/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Media Chain, LLC
• Original Assignee: Media Chain, LLC
• Inventors: Estes, Christopher A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Lynn D
• Assistant Examiner(s): McCoy, Richard A
• Application Number:
  US16/150,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20190034599A1
• Time in Patent Office: 587 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1015 to users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections

Abstract

Systems and methods for monetizing the reproduction of digital media content for the rights-holders of the digital media content. Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to determining whether a user of a media content item has a license to reproduce the media content item. In one embodiment, the media content item may be reproduced when the user is licensed. The user is prompted to select to acquire a license to reproduce the media content item or to decline the license to reproduce the media content item when the user is not licensed. Further embodiments determine whether a user may receive a license when the user wishes to acquire a license. In an embodiment, the user is declined a license when not approved for the license.

Claims

1. A system for determining a target demographic for media marketing, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory coupled with the processor, the memory including instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

determine at least one identification characteristic of data within a media content item for identifying the media content item using a media fingerprint determination to determine a media fingerprint that uniquely identifies the media content item and comprises the at least one identification characteristic,

wherein the at least one identification characteristic is a characteristic unique to the data within the media content item,

wherein the data within the media content item is included in the media content item when the media content item is initially recorded and not dependent on any encoding during any mastering of the media content item,

wherein the media finger print determination comprises

determining a plurality of times corresponding to the data within the media content item,

determining, using word recognition, for each time of the plurality of times, a set of words within the data for audible rendering of the media content item uniquely corresponding to the each time,

determining, for the each time of the plurality of times, a corresponding audio frequency of the data,

determining, for the each time of the plurality of times, a data point comprising

the each time,

the corresponding set of words,

and the corresponding audio frequency,

determining the media fingerprint comprising each determined data point;

receiving a request from a user and a second request from a second user to reproduce the media content item,

after the evaluation of the request, extracting user data including first demographic data specific to first user into a first statistics record identified by the media fingerprint,

after the evaluation of the second request, extracting second user data including second demographic data different from the first demographic data specific to the second user into a second statistics record identified by the media fingerprint,

appending, using the media fingerprint, the first and second statistics record to a plurality of statistics records, also corresponding to and identified by, the media fingerprint to create an updated plurality of statistic records in a database,

receiving, from a the third party, one or more request,

in response to the one or more request,

retrieving the updated plurality of statistics records from the database using the media fingerprint,

determining, using the retrieved plurality of statistics records, the target demographic based on a first demographic corresponding to the first demographic data and a second demographic corresponding to the second demographic data and a plurality of additional demographic data corresponding to the retrieved plurality of statistics records,

and, marketing the media content item to a plurality of other users corresponding to the determined target demographic.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

identify media content item data associated with the media content item based on the at least one identification characteristic associated with the media content item, wherein the media content item data includes an identification of a copyright owner of the media content item.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to:

aggregate the media content item data specific to the media content item that is identified based on the at least one identification characteristic associated with the media content item into a media record that is specific to the media content item that the user is requesting to stream; and

distribute a plurality of media records from each request to stream the media content item to the party other than the user to provide the party other than the user with the aggregated media content item data from each request to stream the media content item via the plurality of media records aggregated from each request to stream the media content item.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive a request from an external device associated with the user requesting to stream the media content item, and

receive a digital file associated with the media content item that the user is requesting to stream, wherein the digital file includes the at least one identification characteristic of the media content item.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the processor is further configured to:

analyze the digital file associated with the media content item to identify the at least one identification characteristic associated with the media content item that is requested to be streamed by the user; and

identify the media content item based on the at least one identification characteristic included in the digital file to determine the copyright holder of the media content item.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to analyze metadata associated with the digital file to identify the media content item.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine the media fingerprint associated with the media content item that is requested to be streamed by the user to identify the media content item, wherein the media fingerprint includes a plurality of media content item characteristics that corresponds to copyrightable content included in the media content item that identifies the media content item; and

analyze each media content item characteristic included in the media fingerprint to identify the media content item based on each media content item characteristic that corresponds to the copyrightable content included in the media content item, wherein the copyrightable content is a feature included in the media content item that is copyrightable.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine the media fingerprint associated with a version of the media content item that is requested to be streamed by the user to identify the media content item, wherein the media fingerprint includes a plurality of differentiable media content item characteristics that corresponds to copyrightable content that is differentiable for each version of the media content item; and

analyze the differentiable media content item characteristics included in the media fingerprint to differentiate the version of the media content item from each other version of the media content item, wherein the differentiable media content item characteristics for each version of the media content item differentiate from the differentiable media content item characteristics of each other version of the media content item.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive a license request from the external device that is associated with the user requesting to stream the media content item and includes the media fingerprint of the media content item, wherein the license request is a request from the user to obtain a license to stream the media content item.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:

compare the media fingerprint of the media content item included in the license request to a plurality of media fingerprints stored in a digital media catalog database to identify the media content item data specific to the media content item;

aggregate the media content item data specific to the media content item that is identified based on the media fingerprint of the media content item into a media record that is specific to the media content item that the user is requesting to stream; and

distribute the plurality of media records from each request to stream the media content item to the party other than the user to provide the party other than the user with the aggregated media content item data from each request to stream the media content item via the plurality of media records aggregated from each request to stream the media content item.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying media content item data associated with the media content item based on the at least one identification characteristic associated with the media content item, wherein the media content item data includes an identification of a copyright owner of the media content item.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

aggregating the media content item data specific to the media content item that is identified based on the at least one identification characteristic associated with the media content item into a media record that is specific to the media content item that the user is requesting to stream; and

distributing a plurality of media records from each request to stream the media content item to the party other than the user to provide the party other than the user with the aggregated media content item data from each request to stream the media content item via the plurality of media records aggregated from each request to stream the media content item.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a request from an external device associated with the user requesting to stream the media content item; and

receiving a digital file associated with the media content item that the user is requesting to stream, wherein the digital file includes the at least one identification characteristic of the media content item.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

analyzing the digital file associated with the media content item to identify the at least one identification characteristic associated with the media content item that is requested to be streamed by the user; and

identifying the media content item based on the at least one identification characteristic included in the digital file to determine the copyright holder of the media content item.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

analyzing metadata associated with the digital file to identify the media content item.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining the media fingerprint further includes a plurality of media content item characteristics that corresponds to copyrightable content included in the media content item that identifies the media content item; and

analyzing each media content item characteristic included in the media fingerprint to identify the media content item based on each media content item characteristic that corresponds to the copyrightable content included in the media content item, wherein the copyrightable content is a feature included in the media content item that is copyrightable.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

determining the media fingerprint associated with a version of the media content item that is requested to be streamed by the user to identify the media content item, wherein the media fingerprint includes a plurality of differentiable media content item characteristics that corresponds to copyrightable content that is differentiable for each version of the media content item; and

analyzing the differentiable media content item characteristics included in the media fingerprint to differentiate the version of the media content item from each other version of the media content item, wherein the differentiable media content item characteristics for each version of the media content item differentiate from the differentiable media content item characteristics for each other version of the media content item.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a license request from the external device that includes the media fingerprint of the media content item, wherein the license request is a request from the user to obtain a license to stream the media content item.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

comparing the media fingerprint of the media content item included in the license request to a plurality of media fingerprints stored in a digital media catalog database to identify the media content item data specific to the media content item;

aggregating the media content item data specific to the media content item that is identified based on the media fingerprint of the media content item into a media record that is specific to the media content item that the user is requesting to stream; and

distributing the plurality of media records from each request to stream the media content item to the party other than the user to provide the party other than the user with the aggregated media content item data from each request to stream the media content item via the plurality of media records aggregated from each request to stream the media content item.

11. A method for configuring a multimedia hardware device to generate an authorized reproduction of a media content item included in a digital media file, comprising:

determining at least one identification characteristic of data within a media content item for identifying the media content item using a media fingerprint determination to determine a media fingerprint that uniquely identifies the media content item and comprises the at least one identification characteristic,

wherein the at least one identification characteristic is a characteristic unique to the data within the media content item,

wherein the data within the media content item is included in the media content item when the media content item is initially recorded and not dependent on any encoding during any mastering of the media content item,

wherein the media fingerprint determination comprises

determining a plurality of times corresponding to the data within the media content item,

determining, using word recognition, for each time of the plurality of times, a set of words within the data for audible rendering of the media content item uniquely corresponding to the each time,

determining, for the each time of the plurality of times, a corresponding audio frequency of the data,

determining, for the each time of the plurality of times, a data point comprising

the each time,

the corresponding set of words,

and the corresponding audio frequency,

determining the media fingerprint comprising each determined data point;

receiving a request from a user and a second request from a second user to reproduce the media content item,

after the evaluation of the request, extracting user data including first demographic data specific to first user into a first statistics record identified by the media fingerprint,

after the evaluation of the second request, extracting second user data including second demographic data different from the first demographic data specific to the second user into a second statistics record identified by the media fingerprint,

appending, using the media fingerprint, the first and second statistics record to a plurality of statistics records, also corresponding to and identified by, the media fingerprint to create an updated plurality of statistic records in a database,

receiving, from a the third party, one or more request,

in response to the one or more request,

retrieving the updated plurality of statistics records from the database using the media fingerprint,

determining using the retrieved plurality of statistics records, the target demographic based on a first demographic corresponding to the first demographic data and a second demographic corresponding to the second demographic data and a plurality of additional demographic data corresponding to the retrieved plurality of statistics records,

and, marketing the media content item to a plurality of other users corresponding to the determined target demographic.