Access control and metering system for streaming media

• US 20040254887A1
• Filed: 10/06/2003
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jacoby, Ronald
• Granted Patent: US 7,383,229 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/835 Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and techniques for transmitting a streaming media file. One of the techniques includes sending a metering uniform resource locator (URL) from a first server to a client player over a network, and sending a streaming media file from a second server to the client player over the network. The streaming media file includes at least one embedded metering event. In response to receiving the metering URL and the embedded metering event at the client player, a user meter is ticked.

Claims

1. A method for streaming a streaming media file from a server to a client player for consumption of the steaming media file at the client player, the method comprising:

transmitting a metering uniform resource locator (URL) from a first server to a client player over a network;

streaming the streaming media file from a second server to the client player over the network;

receiving an embedded metering event in the streaming media file; and

ticking a user meter in the first server.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the metering URL is communicated over a first network link and the streaming media file is communicated over a second network link.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the metering URL and the streaming media file are communicated over a network link.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising communicating a client media player from the first server to the client player.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the ticking step occurs in the first server.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

appending a representation of the encountered embedded metering event to the metering URL to form an appended representation;

communicating the appended representation from the client player to the first server; and

decrementing a user account based on the appended representation.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising stopping the streaming step if the appended representation is not communicated from the client player to the first server within a predetermined time.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising signing the metering URL with a message authentication code (MAC).

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

verifying the authenticity of the URL in the first server; and

stopping the streaming step if the URL is not verified.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the MAC is an MD5 hash or a SHA1 hash.

11. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable storage medium for streaming steaming media file to a client media player, the computer program product comprising:

code for transmitting a metering uniform resource locator (URL) from a first server to a client player over a network;

code for streaming the streaming media file from a second server to the client player over the network;

code for receiving an embedded metering event in the streaming media file; and

code for ticking a user meter in the first server.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the metering URL is communicated over a first network link and the streaming media file is communicated over a second network link.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the metering URL and the streaming media file are communicated over a network link.

14. The computer program product of claim 12 further comprising code for communicating a client media player from the first server to the client player.

15. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the code for ticking executes in the first server.

16. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

code for appending a representation of the encountered embedded metering event to the metering URL to form an appended representation;

code for communicating the appended representation from the client player to the first server; and

code for decrementing a user account based on the appended representation.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 further comprising code for stopping the code for streaming from executing if the appended representation is not communicated from the client player to the first server within a predetermined time.

18. The computer program product of claim 16 further comprising signing the metering URL with a message authentication code (MAC).

19. The computer program product of claim 18 further comprising:

code for verifying the authenticity of the URL in the first server; and

code for stopping the code for streaming from executing if the URL is not verified.

20. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the MAC is an MD5 hash or a SHA1 hash.

21. A method for streaming a streaming media file to a client player, the method comprising:

transmitting a metering uniform resource locator (URL) from a first server to a client player over a network;

streaming the streaming media file from the first server to the client player over the network;

receiving an embedded metering event embedded in the streaming media file; and

ticking a user meter in a second server.

22. A streaming media system for streaming a streaming media file from a server to a client browser for consumption of the steaming media file at the client browser, the system comprising:

a client browser configured to tick a user meter;

a first server configured to communicate a metering uniform resource locator (URL) from the first server to the client player over a network; and

a second server configured to communicate a streaming media file from the second server to the client browser over the network;

wherein the streaming media file includes at least one embedded metering event; and

wherein the client browser is configured to tick the user meter in response to receiving the metering URL from the first server and the embedded metering event from the second server.

23. The system of claim 22 further comprising a third server configured to generate the user meter.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the client browser includes a client media player configured to play the streaming media file;

and wherein the client media player playing the streaming media file encounters the embedded metering event and appends the embedded metering event to the metering URL.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein:

the client browser is configured to append the embedded metering event to the metering URL to form an appended representation and communicate the appended representation to the first server; and

the first server is configured to decrements a user account.

26. The system of claim 22 wherein the metering URL is signed with a message authentication code (MAC).

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the MAC is an MD5 hash, a SHA1 hash, or a ghost key.

28. A streaming media system wherein a media presentation is streamed to a client system while tracking usage of the media presentation by the client system, the system comprising:

a client player that is configured to present to a user a streamed media presentation;

a streaming server for delivering the streamed media presentation to the client player, including embedded metering events represented by data in the streamed media presentation;

an extractor, at the client system, that extracts embedded metering events from the streamed media presentations and sends them to a usage meter;

logic at the user meter for adjusting a user account based on received-metering events; and

control logic to discontinue the media presentation when predetermined criteria for one or more of the media presentations and the user account are not met.