System and method for providing access to electronic works

• US 20020062252A1
• Filed: 12/12/2001
• Published: 05/23/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Universal Music Group Incorporated (Universal Music Group NV)
• Original Assignee: Universal Music Group Incorporated (Universal Music Group NV)
• Inventors: Story, David M., Park, James, Callahan, Brian, Degenhardt, Brian Mason, Stephens, Joshua, Oliphant, Michael, Knott, John P., Van Zoest, Alexander T., Costello, George Matthew, Moore, James Martin, Dimeo, Matthew John, Sismondo, Charles Lawrence, Barnum, Tristan Anne, DeRose, John William
• Granted Patent: US 6,609,105 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0248 Avoiding fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

The present invention is a system and method for providing access to electronic works over a network. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention offers a user access to electronic copies of works, such as songs, albums, movies, or music videos, over a network. The user responds to the offer by requesting to access to a particular work. Before such a request is granted, the present invention may verify that the user is authorized to access to the work. In one embodiment, the user verifies that they are authorized to access an electronic copy of the work by demonstrating that they possess a physical copy of the work. In another embodiment, the user verifies that they are authorized to access an electronic copy of the work by demonstrating that they ordered or purchased a copy of the work. If a user'"'"'s authorization is verified, the user may then be provided with access to an electronic copy of the work by such techniques as downloading or streaming.

Claims

1. A method of providing electronic works, comprising the steps of:

offering electronic works to a user over a network,

receiving a request for access to at least one electronic work over the network;

verifying the user is authorized to access the requested electronic work; and

providing the user with access to the requested electronic work over the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the requested electronic work is provided by streaming.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the requested electronic work is provided by downloading.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the downloaded electronic work includes a digital watermark.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing electronic works; and

wherein the step of verifying includes the steps of;

receiving data corresponding to at least one track offset of a physical work, and

comparing the at least one track offset of the physical work to a corresponding track offset on at least one stored electronic work.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the physical work is a compact disk.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of verifying includes the step of:

acquiring identification information from the physical work, and

identifying at least one electronic work for the comparison.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the identification information is a title of the physical work.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of comparing compares a range of values for a track offset of the physical work to the stored electronic works.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of comparing compares a plurality of track offsets.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing electronic works; and

wherein the step of verifying includes the steps of;

sending a request to obtain data corresponding to at least a portion of a physical work;

receiving data corresponding to the at least a portion of the physical work; and

comparing the at least a portion of the physical work with a corresponding portion of at least one electronic work to determine whether to grant the request.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of comparing includes correlation to identify the corresponding portions of the at least a portion of the physical work and the corresponding portion of the at least one electronic work.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of comparing includes phase shifting either the at least a portion of the physical work or the corresponding portion of the at least one electronic work.

14. The method of claim 12 or 13, comprising the step of:

increasing size of the portion of the physical work or the corresponding portion of the at least one electronic work prior to comparison.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of comparing includes a Fast Fourier Transform analysis on the portion of the physical work and the corresponding portion of the at least one electronic work.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of comparing includes comparing time domain samples from the portion of the physical work.

17. The method of claim 11, where the step of comparing accommodates a margin of error allowance.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of:

repeating the verifying step.

19. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of verifying further includes the steps of:

sending a request to obtain data corresponding to at least a portion of a physical work;

receiving data corresponding to the at least a portion of the physical work; and

comparing the at least a portion of the physical work with a corresponding portion of at least one electronic work to determine whether to grant the request.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for access is received from a device, and further comprising the step of:

identifying characteristics of the device.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for access is received from a device, and further comprising the step of:

receiving a form of user identification from the device.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for access is received from a device, and further comprising the steps of:

sending a request for a form of user identification to the device; and

receiving the form of user identification from the device.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the verifying step includes receiving the form of user identification and testing the form of user identification against stored information.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing frequently requested works locally.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a request for access to an electronic work and a form of user identification from a device;

identifying characteristics of the requesting device;

validating the form of user identification against stored information;

storing frequently requested items locally; and

providing the device with access to the electronic work.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the form of user identification is a uniform resource locator.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the uniform resource locator is secure.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the uniform resource locator includes a time stamp and a unique user identifier.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of validating the form of user identification includes checking whether the user is concurrently logged in from another device.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of validating the form of user identification includes using a time stamp to validate the user.

31. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of validating includes comparing an autonomous system number to a stored autonomous system number.

32. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of validating includes comparing an identifier of media player software to a stored identifier of media player software.

33. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of validating includes comparing a session identifier to a stored session identifier.

34. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing a pointer to a stored electronic work.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the pointer is stored in a user'"'"'s personal account.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising the step of:

checking whether the user is entitled to request the electronic work.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of checking is done with a unique user identification and a password.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing step provides access to the electronic version of the requested work with a personal computer, cell phone, personal digital assistant, home or car audio system, or consumer electronics.

39. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for access is from a retailer.

40. The method of claim 1, wherein the verifying step includes checking whether the request is duplicative of a previous request.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the previous request is reactivated.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein the verifying step includes confirming a credit card.

43. The method of claim 41, further comprising the step of:

sending an approval signal.

44. The method of claim 39, where the request is encrypted.

45. The method of claim 39, wherein the verifying step includes checking whether the retailer is authorized to make the request.

46. The method of claim 39, wherein the verifying step includes checking a unique retailer identification.

47. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing a database with electronic works.

48. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for access is a request to obtain a pointer to a electronic work.

49. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for access is a request to obtain a copy of a electronic work in a private account.

50. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic work is a digital audio file.

51. A method of acquiring an electronic version of a work, comprising the steps of:

obtaining a physical work;

creating an electronic work from the physical work;

extracting samples of data from the physical work;

identifying an electronic work in an encoding queue;

retrieving the electronic work identified in the encoding queue; and

transferring the retrieved electronic work to storage.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising the step of providing encoders in a queue based, database mediated configuration.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein the step of extracting further extracts index information.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the index information identifies what samples of the physical work were extracted.

55. The method of claim 51, further comprising the step of:

labeling the physical work.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the physical work is labeled with a UPC code.

57. The method of claim 51, further comprising the step of:

labeling the electronic work with a label corresponding to the label on the physical work.

59. The method of claim 51, further comprising the step of:

loading pointers to the electronic work into the encoding queue.

60. The method of claim 51, wherein the encoding queue uses a first in, first out scheduling algorithm;

61. The method of claim 51, further comprising the step of:

encoding the electronic work identified in the encoding queue.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein the step of encoding encodes two versions of the electronic work.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein the two versions of the electronic work are a 24 kilobit per second version and a 128 kilobit per second version.

64. The method of claim 59, further comprising the step of

inserting pointers into the encoding queue to indicate which encoded electronic works are ready for the transferring step.

65. The method of claim 53, wherein the transferring step also transfers the index information.

58. The method of claim, further comprising the steps of:

labeling the electronic work; and

using the label of the electronic work as a unique identifier for accounting purposes.

66. A method of delivering electronic works, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request for access to an electronic work and a form of user identification from a device;

identifying characteristics of the requesting device;

verifying the form of user identification against stored information;

storing frequently requested items locally in memory; and

providing the device with access to the electronic work.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the device is a personal computer, cell phone, dedicated player, or car stereo.

68. The method of claim 66 wherein the identifying step includes sending a request for a form of user identification to the device.

69. The method of claim 68 wherein the form of user identification is a unique identifier, uniform resource locator, telephone number, or domain name.

70. The method of claim 66, further comprising the step of:

translating the form of user identification into a unique identifier.

71. The method of claim 66, wherein the verifying step includes checking whether the user is simultaneously logged in from another device.

72. The method of claim 69, wherein the verifying step includes using a time stamp from the uniform resource locator to verify the user.

73. The method of claim 69, wherein the verifying step includes using a time stamp and a second user identifier to verify the user.

74. A method of acquiring an electronic work, comprising the steps of:

logging into a service offering access to at least one electronic work;

sending a request to access at least one electronic work and a form of identification;

demonstrating authorization to receive the requested electronic work; and

obtaining access to the requested electronic work.

75. The method of claim 74, wherein the step of demonstrating includes loading physical work into a personal computer.

76. The method of claim 74, wherein the step of demonstrating includes sending a confirmation number for the purchase of a physical work.

77. The method of claim 74, wherein access to the requested electronic work is receiving a downloaded electronic work.

78. The method of claim 74, wherein access to the requested electronic work includes receiving a streamed version of the work.

79. A method of authorizing electronic works, comprising the steps of:

accepting an order for an electronic work from a user;

sending a message including a unique identifier of the work to a distributor, wherein the message instructs the distributor to provide the user with access to an electronic work; and

receiving a confirmation from the distributor that the user was given access to an electronic work.

80. An apparatus for providing electronic works, comprising:

means for offering electronic works to a user over a network;

means for storing at least one of the offered electronic works;

means for receiving a request for access to at least one electronic work over the network;

means for verifying the user is authorized to access the requested electronic work wherein the means for verifying includes;

means for receiving data corresponding to at least one track offset of a physical work, and

means for comparing the at least one track offset of the physical work to a corresponding track offset on at least one stored electronic work; and

means for providing the user with access to the requested electronic work over the network.

81. The apparatus of claim 80, wherein the means for verifying further includes:

means for sending a request to obtain data corresponding to at least a portion of a physical work;

means for receiving data corresponding to the at least a portion of the physical work; and

means for comparing the at least a portion of the physical work with a corresponding portion of at least one electronic work to determine whether to grant the request.

82. An apparatus for providing electronic works, comprising:

means for offering electronic works to a user over a network;

means for storing at least one of the offered electronic works;

means for receiving a request for access to at least one electronic work over the network;

means for verifying the user is authorized to access the requested electronic work wherein the means for verifying includes;

means for sending a request to obtain data corresponding to at least a portion of a physical work,

means for receiving data corresponding to the at least a portion of the physical work, and

means for comparing the at least a portion of the physical work with a corresponding portion of at least one electronic work to determine whether to grant the request; and

means for providing the user with access to the requested electronic work over the network.

83. An apparatus for acquiring an electronic version of a work, comprising:

means for obtaining a physical work;

means for creating an electronic work from the physical work;

means for extracting samples of data from the physical work;

means for identifying an electronic work in an encoding queue;

means for retrieving the electronic work identified in the encoding queue; and

means for transferring the retrieved electronic work to storage.

84. The apparatus for delivering electronic works, comprising:

means for receiving a request for access to an electronic work and a form of user identification from a device;

means for identifying characteristics of the requesting device;

means for verifying the form of user identification against stored information;

means for storing frequently requested items locally in memory; and

means for providing the device with access to the electronic work.

85. An apparatus for providing electronic works, comprising:

a server for offering electronic works to a user over a network, wherein the server stores at least one of the offered electronic works, wherein the server receives a request for access to at least one electronic work over the network;

wherein the server verifies the user is authorized to access the requested electronic work by receiving data corresponding to at least one track offset of a physical work, and comparing the at least one track offset of the physical work to a corresponding track offset on at least one stored electronic work; and

wherein the server provides the user with access to the requested electronic work over the network.

86. The apparatus of claim 85, wherein the server also sends a request to obtain data corresponding to at least a portion of a physical work, receives data corresponding to the at least a portion of the physical work, and compares the at least a portion of the physical work with a corresponding portion of at least one electronic work to determine whether to grant the request.

87. An apparatus for providing electronic works, comprising:

a server for offering electronic works to a user over a network, storing the offered electronic works, and receiving a request for access to at least one electronic work over the network;

wherein the server also verifies the user is authorized to access the requested electronic work by sending a request to obtain data corresponding to at least a portion of a physical work, receiving data corresponding to the at least a portion of the physical work, and comparing the at least a portion of the physical work with a corresponding portion of at least one electronic work to determine whether to grant the request; and

wherein the server also provides the user with access to the requested electronic work over the network.

88. An apparatus for acquiring an electronic version of a work, comprising:

two rippers for extracting data from a physical work;

two encoders, wherein each ripper is connected to each encoder, wherein the two encoders include dual processors,

a database, wherein the database stores a queue of extracted data ready for delivery to the at least two encoders, wherein the extracted data from the physical work is distributed to more than one encoder, and wherein the encoders encode the extracted data; and

a storage device, wherein the storage device stores the encoded data from the encoders.

89. The apparatus of claim 88, wherein the database uses a first in, first out scheduling algorithm.

90. The apparatus of claim 89, wherein there are more encoders than rippers.

91. The apparatus of claim 90, wherein there are more than two rippers and more than two encoders.

92. The apparatus of claim 91, wherein the more than two rippers and the more than two encoders are connected in a queue based, database mediated configuration.

93. The apparatus of claim 91, wherein the two rippers extract a sample of data from the physical work, wherein the sample is used to verify the user possess the physical work.

94. The apparatus of claim 93, wherein an index file is stored with the extracted sample of data.

95. The apparatus of claim 94, wherein the index file shows what sample was extracted and where the sample is stored.

96. The apparatus of claim 94, wherein the storage device loads pointers into the queue, wherein the pointers identify data.

97. The apparatus for delivering electronic works, comprising:

a server for receiving a request for access to an electronic work, user identification, and information identifying a type of device;

a translation module, wherein the translation module identifies the requested electronic work from the request;

a validation module, wherein the validation module validates the user is entitled to receive the electronic work, wherein the validating is done by comparing information acquired from a previous request to information from a current request, and

wherein the server provides the user with access to the requested electronic work.

98. The apparatus of claim 97, wherein the validating is done by concurrency checking.

99. The apparatus of claim 97, where in the validating is done by valid for data management.