Method and system for providing annotations of a digital work

• US 20060161578A1
• Filed: 01/19/2005
• Published: 07/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Siegel, Hilliard B., Manber, Udi, Leblang, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 8,131,647 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Methods and systems for receiving and distributing annotations of a digital work include receiving an annotation of the digital work, storing the annotation, and providing the annotation to a user. The user may be required to submit a valid authorization credential for the annotation. Annotations may be textual or graphical, and may be associated with particular content in a digital work. Indicators may be displayed to identify content in the digital work for which annotations are available. A user may exchange compensation or perform a specified action for access to an annotation. Some or all of the compensation received for an annotation may be distributed to the author of the annotation. Multiple annotations may be listed in an order based a criterion, such as ranking, price, or date of receipt. Users that purchase a digital work may automatically receive an authorization credential to receive annotations of the digital work.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing an annotation of a digital work, comprising:

receiving an annotation of a digital work;

storing the annotation in association with the digital work;

receiving an authorization credential from a user desiring to access the annotation; and

if the authorization credential is valid, providing the annotation of the digital work to the user in context with regard to the digital work.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotation of the digital work is received in a graphical format.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the annotation includes handwriting.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotation includes highlighting of text in the digital work.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotation is provided such that the annotation is viewable by the user concurrent with a display of the digital work.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotation is associated with particular content in the digital work.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the annotation is provided such that the annotation is normally hidden and becomes viewable when a cursor or pointer is positioned near the particular content in the digital work.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the digital work is textual and the particular content in the digital work is identified by an indicator displayed near the text of the digital work.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the digital work is an audio or audiovisual work and the particular content in the digital work is identified by an indicator displayed with a playback control provided for playback of the digital work.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the particular content in the digital work is identified by an indicator displayed with a listing of contents for the digital work.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotation includes an image.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the user has obtained the authorization credential in exchange for compensation paid by the user, the method further comprising distributing compensation to the author of the annotation.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein compensation is distributed to the author after receiving an indication of satisfaction from the user to whom the annotation is provided.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the authorization credential is specific to the annotation desired by the user.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein multiple annotations are received for particular content in the digital work and a list is provided to the user presenting the multiple annotations in an order determined by reference to a criterion.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the criterion is a ranking of the annotations assigned by others who previously have viewed the annotations.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the criterion is a price assigned to each of the annotations.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the criterion is a date of receipt of each of the annotations.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotation, when combined with the digital work to which it pertains, becomes accessible upon accessing the digital work.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the user has obtained the authorization credential in exchange for purchase of the digital work to which the annotation pertains.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the user has obtained the authorization credential in exchange for user-performance of a specified action.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the specified action is electronically previewing a digital work.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the specified action is contributing an annotation of a digital work.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising submitting the authorization credential to a validation system that generates an indication of the credential'"'"'s validity.

25. A computer-accessible medium configured with program instructions that direct a computing system to:

receive from a client system an annotation of a digital work;

store the annotation in a memory in association with the digital work; and

upon receipt of a valid authorization credential from a user desiring to access the annotation, provide the annotation to a client system for output to the user, wherein the annotation is provided in context with regard to the digital work.

26. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, further configured with program instructions that direct the computing system to receive the annotation in a graphical format.

27. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, further configured with program instructions that direct the computing system to receive the annotation in a textual format.

28. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, further configured with program instructions that direct the computing system to store the annotation in association with particular content in the digital work.

29. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, further configured with program instructions that direct the computing system to receive the annotation in the form of an image.

30. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, further configured with program instructions that direct the computing system to facilitate a payment of compensation from the user for access to the annotation and distribute compensation to the author of the annotation.

31. The computer-accessible medium of claim 30, further configured with program instructions that direct the computing system to distribute compensation to the author after receiving an indication of satisfaction from the user to whom the annotation is provided.

32. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, wherein the authorization credential is specific to the annotation provided to the user.

33. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, further configured with program instructions that direct the computing system to provide the annotation to the user only after the user has purchased the digital work to which the annotation pertains.

34. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, further configured with program instructions that direct the computing system to require the user to perform a specified action before providing the authorization credential to the user.

35. The computer-accessible medium of claim 34, wherein the specified action is electronically previewing a digital work.

36. The computer-accessible medium of claim 34, wherein the specified action is contributing an annotation of a digital work.

37. A computer-implemented method for providing an annotation of a digital work, comprising:

obtaining a first representation of a digital work, the first representation comprising one or more images;

obtaining a second representation of the digital work, the second representation comprising content of the digital work in a form that allows particular content of the digital work to be indicated, the particular content being correlatable with one or more locations in the one or more images at which the particular content is represented;

receiving an annotation of the digital work in regard to indicated particular content of the digital work; and

providing to a user the annotation in context with regard to the digital work.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising providing one or more images of the digital work to the user such that the annotation provided to the user is perceptibly associated by the user with the particular content in the digital work.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the annotation is configured to appear to the user superposed on one or more of the images of the digital work.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the annotation is configured to appear adjacent to one or more of the images of the digital work.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the images further include an indication of the particular content to which the annotation pertains.

42. The method of claim 37, wherein the digital work originates from a source and wherein the author of the annotation and the source of the digital work are different.

43. The method of claim 37, wherein the digital work originates from a source and wherein the user to whom the annotation is provided and the source of the digital work are different.

44. The method of claim 37, wherein the annotation is provided to the user via an online marketplace.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the annotation is provided to the user together with the digital work via the online marketplace.

46. The method of claim 37, wherein an annotation of the digital work is further subject to annotation by another author.

47. The method of claim 37, wherein the indication of particular content of the digital work to which the annotation pertains is received from an author of the annotation.

48. A computing system configured to provide a marketplace for annotations of digital works, comprising:

a computing subsystem that receives digital works from a plurality of sources;

a computing subsystem that receives annotations of digital works from a plurality of authors;

a computing subsystem that receives requests for annotations from a plurality of users and delivers annotations to requesting users; and

a computing subsystem that facilitates receiving compensation from users for delivery of annotations and distributing compensation to authors of the delivered annotations.

49. The computing system of claim 48, wherein the compensation distributed to an author is a portion of the compensation received from a user.

50. The computing system of claim 48, wherein the compensation received from a user is represented by a valid authorization credential received from the user.

51. The computing system of claim 48, wherein the compensation received from a user is performance by the user of a specified action.

52. The computing system of claim 48, wherein the compensation received from a user is included in compensation paid by the user to access a digital work.

53. The computing system of claim 48, wherein the compensation distributed to an author is conditioned on an indication of satisfaction from the user to whom the annotation was delivered.