Restoration of lost peer-to-peer offline transaction records

• US 20050096993A1
• Filed: 10/31/2003
• Published: 05/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Brignone, Cyril, Pradhan, Salil, Gouguenheim, Christophe
• Granted Patent: US 7,287,078 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1474 in transactions G06F16/20 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/209 Specified transaction journal output feature, e.g. printed receipt or voice output
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/401 Transaction verification
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

The invention provides for restoration of lost peer-to-peer offline transaction records. The lost offline transaction records may include access rights to digital media. In one embodiment, a demand for restoration of a plurality of lost peer-to-peer offline transaction records is made. In response, an attempt is made to verify each transaction for the plurality of lost transaction records. This attempt is made through another party to the corresponding transaction. An accuracy indicator is assigned to each transaction to indicate whether the transaction is verified directly through another party to the corresponding transaction. A determination is made as to whether each transaction record of the plurality of lost transaction records should be restored based on the assigned accuracy indicators.

Claims

1. A method of responding to a demand for restoration of lost offline peer-to-peer transaction records comprising:

attempting to verify transactions for a plurality of lost transaction records through another party to the corresponding transaction;

assigning an accuracy indicator to transactions of the plurality of lost transaction records wherein the accuracy indicator indicates whether the transaction is verified directly through another party to the corresponding transaction; and

determining whether transaction records of the plurality should be restored based on the assigned accuracy indicators.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said lost transaction records include access rights to digital media.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising restoring selected ones of the lost transaction records.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said restoring comprises restoring only those transaction records that are verified directly.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein said restoring comprises restoring at least one of the lost transaction records before the transaction is verified through the other party to the transaction.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein said determining comprises receiving a log of transaction records from each other party to the transactions for the lost transaction records whose record of the transaction is not lost.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the accuracy indicator further indicates whether the transaction record for a transaction is verified indirectly through another party to the corresponding transaction.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the accuracy indicator indicates the number of parties through which the transaction is verified indirectly.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein said restoring comprises restoring only those transaction records that are verified directly and those that are verified indirectly through one other party.

10. The method according to claim 3, wherein said determining is performed based on a ratio of a number of verified transactions to a number of lost transactions.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein when the ratio exceeds a threshold, said restoring comprises restoring at least one of the lost transaction records before the transaction is verified through the other party to the transaction.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the ratio is of directly verified transactions to a number of lost transactions and when the ratio exceeds a threshold, said restoring comprises restoring at least one transaction that is not directly verified.

13. The method according to claim 3, wherein said determining is further based on a history for the party making the demand.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the history for the party indicates whether the party has made one or more previous demands for restoration of lost transaction records.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the history for the party indicates verified and unverified transactions.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein the unverified transactions include refuted transactions.

17. The method according to claim 10, wherein the unverified transactions include transactions for which a transaction log of another party to the transaction is unavailable.

18. The method according to claim 13, wherein the history for the party includes a ratio of a number of verified transactions to a number of lost transactions.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein when the ratio exceeds a threshold, said restoring comprises restoring at least one of the lost transaction records before the transaction is verified through the other party to the transaction.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein the ratio is of directly verified transactions to a number of lost transactions and when the ratio exceeds a threshold, said restoring comprises restoring at least one transaction that is not directly verified.

21. The method according to claim 10, wherein the party is blacklisted when the number of unverified transactions exceeds a threshold.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein when the party is blacklisted, said restoring comprises restoring only those transaction records that are verified directly.

23. A content provider for responding to a demand for restoration of lost transaction records wherein the content provider assigns an accuracy indicator to transactions of the plurality of lost transaction records based on attempts to verify transactions through another party to the corresponding transaction, and determines whether to restore selected ones of the lost transaction records based on the assigned accuracy indicators.

24. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for responding to a demand for restoration of lost peer-to-peer transaction records comprising:

attempting to verify transactions for a plurality of lost transaction records through another party to the corresponding transaction;

assigning an accuracy indicator to transactions of the plurality of lost transaction records wherein the accuracy indicator indicates whether the transaction is verified directly through another party to the corresponding transaction; and

determining whether transaction records of the plurality should be restored based on the assigned accuracy indicators.