LIKE PROCESSING OF OWNED AND FOR-PURCHASE MEDIA

• US 20070083556A1
• Filed: 04/14/2006
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Novak, Michael, Silverman, Andrew, Plastina, Daniel, Kiilerich, Dennis, Lu, Phillip, Olson, Kipley, Nadalin, David, Tse, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,601 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A method for managing a group of owned and for-purchase media items in response to a single user action. The method treats the owned media items and the for-purchase media items similarly with respect to the user'"'"'s interaction with them, facilitating a user paradigm-shift from thinking about two stores of media items to a single store of media items available for use. A media item grouping generic to both types of media items is provided, permitting sharing of media item collections between users having different access rights with respect to the media items.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing media items with a computing device coupled to a data communication network, said computing device executing a media player application for rendering one or more of the media items to a user, said method comprising:

selecting at least one media item from a user-owned library containing one or more media items owned by the user;

selecting at least one other media item from a remote media store containing one or more media items accessible by the computer via the network; and

in response to a single action being performed, initiating generation of a group of at least two media items as selected from both the user-owned library and the remote media store of media items.

2. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the selecting at least one media item from the user-owned library comprises receiving a user selection of the at least one media item from the user-owned library and receiving a user selection for placement of the at least one media item from the user-owned library into a group basket;

and

wherein the selecting at least one other media item from the remote media store of media items comprises receiving a user selection of the at least one media item from the remote media store and receiving a user selection for placement of the at least one media item from the remote media store into the group basket.

3. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said single action being performed is receiving a user selection requesting generation of the group of at least two media items.

4. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 3 further comprising purchasing and downloading the media items selected from the remote media store via the network upon receipt of the user selection requesting generation of the group of at least two media items.

5. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 3 wherein the user selection requesting generation of the group of at least two media items comprises at least one of:

requesting that the group of at least two media items be played by the media player application executed by the computing device,

requesting that the group of at least two media items be synchronized by a media player application executed by another computing device, and

requesting that the group of at least two media items be stored to a memory.

6. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 5 wherein requesting that the group of at least two media items be synchronized by a media player application comprises requesting that the group of at least two media items be synchronized as a playlist;

and

wherein requesting that the media items within the group of media items be stored to a memory comprises requesting that the media items within the group of media items be stored to at least one of a CD, a disc drive, a flash memory, a DVD, a USB drive, a portable media device, and a game console.

7. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising prompting a user for permission to purchase the at least one media item from the remote media store after the initiating.

8. A computer-implemented method for providing services to a user related to a group of at least two media items, said media items being adapted for rendering to the user by a media player application, said media player application being executed by a computing device coupled to a data communication network, at least one of said media items being collected from a user-owned library containing one or more media items owned by the user and at least one of said media items being collected from a remote media store containing one or more media items accessible via the network, said method comprising:

receiving instructions from a user regarding the group of at least two media items;

applying the received instructions to the group of at least two media items, said received instructions being applied similarly to the media items collected from the user-owned library of media items and to the media items collected from the remote media store; and

providing a user interface on the computing device that displays both the media items accessible from the user-owned library and the media items accessible from the remote media store in an integrated display, whereby the user interface provides functional parity between media items accessible from the user-owned library and media items accessible from the remote media store within the user interface.

9. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 8 wherein said providing a user interface comprises providing a directory tree wherein one branch provides access to the user-owned library and another branch provides access to the remote media store.

10. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 8 wherein said providing a user interface comprises providing a display area for simultaneous display of media items stored in the user-owned library and media items accessible from the remote media store.

11. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 10 wherein said providing a user interface comprises providing an indicator in the display area corresponding to each media item for indicating whether the corresponding media item is either stored in the user-owned library or accessible from the remote media store.

12. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 11 wherein said providing an indicator in the display area indicating that media items are accessible from the remote media store further comprises providing a selection element in the display area associated with each indicator for selectively purchasing the media items.

13. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 8 wherein said providing a user interface comprises providing a group basket adapted for collection of media items accessible from both the user-owned library and the remote media store.

14. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 13 wherein said providing a user interface comprises providing a selection element adapted for persistently storing the media item group collected in the group basket.

15. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 14 wherein said providing a selection element adapted for persistently storing the media item group is further adapted for burning the media items collected in the group basket to at least one of a CD, a disc drive, a flash memory, a DVD, a USB drive, a portable media device, and a game console;

wherein said method of providing a user interface further comprises providing a display of the available memory space for stored media items on the at least one of the CD, the disc drive, the flash memory, the DVD, the USB drive, the portable media device, and the game console.

16. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 15 wherein said providing a user interface comprises providing a display of the memory space required for the media items collected in the group basket as a portion of the display of available memory space for stored media items on the at least one of the CD, the disc drive, the flash memory, the DVD, the USB drive, the portable media device, and the game console.

17. A computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 13 wherein said providing a user interface comprises providing an indicator in the group basket for each of the media items accessible from the remote media store indicating that such media items are available for purchase from the remote media store, and not from the user-owned library.

18. At least one computer-readable medium having a data structure stored thereon representative of a universal playlist of media items adapted for sharing among multiple users, said universal playlist being adapted for identifying the media items contained in the playlist and for identifying an access location associated with each media item whereby each user of the playlist may access the media items of the playlist according to individually-held access rights of each user with respect to each media item, said universal playlist comprising:

a name identifier corresponding to each media item in the playlist,

a location identifier corresponding to each name identifier in the playlist, said location identifier providing an address whereby the user can obtain access to the media items of the universal playlist only to the extent the user has access rights with respect to each media item.

19. A universal playlist as set forth in claim 18 wherein each location identifier comprises:

a local address reference adapted to direct a media player application to access to the media item from the user-owned library containing one or more media items owned by the user;

a media item link adapted to direct the media player application to offer access to the media item from a remote media store containing one or more media items available for purchase, and

a sample link adapted to direct the media player application to access a sample portion of the media item from the remote media store of media items available for purchase.

20. A universal playlist as set forth in claim 18 wherein said location identifier comprises a URL.