Providing syndicated media to authorized users

• US 20070219908A1
• Filed: 03/02/2006
• Published: 09/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Martinez, Ronald
• Application Number:
  US11/367,232
• Publication Number:
  US 20070219908A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

System and method for providing a syndicated media item to authorized users. In one embodiment authorization can be granted through payment, in exchange for watching advertisements and/or as part of another Internet service. A syndication feed comprising a link to an authorization server instead of a direct link to the media item is displayed to a syndication subscriber. Selecting the link, sends a message to the authorization server comprising a subscriber'"'"'s ID and a media item ID. The authorization server uses the IDs to determine if the subscriber is authorized to receive the media item. If the subscriber is authorized the authorization server sends a token to the subscriber, which can be used to access the media item. If not, the subscriber is given instruction on how to obtain the media item.

Claims

1. A method of authorizing a syndicated media provider to send a syndicated media item to a syndication subscriber, the method comprising:

receiving a first message from the syndication subscriber, the first message comprising a syndication subscriber identifier and a syndicated media item identifier that identifies the syndicated media item, the syndication subscriber receiving the syndicated media item identifier using a syndication retriever that periodically requests updates from a syndicated content provider;

determining whether the syndication subscriber is authorized to receive the syndicated media item identified by the syndicated media identifier; and

in response to a positive determination of authorization, authorizing the transmission of the syndicated media item to the syndication subscriber.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndicated subscriber obtains the syndicated media item identifier from an indicator in a syndication feed that can be resolved to retrieve the syndicated media item.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the indicator is a URL to the syndicated media provider.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the indicator is a URL to an authorization computer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the authorization computer is the syndicated media provider.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to a negative determination of authorization, transmitting instructions to obtain the syndicated media item to the syndication subscriber.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndication retriever is a syndication aggregator.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the syndicated media item to the syndication subscriber.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of authorizing the transmission of the syndicated media item to the syndication subscriber comprises:

transmitting a first token to the syndication subscriber, wherein the first token can be sent by the syndication subscriber to the syndicated media provider to receive the syndicated media item;

receiving a second token from the syndicated media provider; and

in response to a positive correlation between the first and second tokens, transmitting a second message to the syndicated media provider, the second message comprising an indication of authorization to send the syndicated media item to the syndication subscriber.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the indication of authorization is a universal resource identifier that identifies the syndicated media item.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the first token and the second token are the same token.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the first token is a nonce.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the first token provides access to the syndicated media for a period of time.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the first token provides access to the syndicated media for a predetermined number of times.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of authorizing the transmission of the syndicated media item to the syndication subscriber comprises:

requesting a token from the syndicated media provider; and

transmitting the token to the syndication subscriber, wherein the token can be sent by the syndication subscriber to the syndicated media provider to receive the syndicated media item.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of authorizing the transmission of the syndicated media item to the syndication subscriber comprises:

selecting a token from a plurality of pre-approved tokens previously received from the syndicated media provider; and

transmitting the token to the syndication subscriber, wherein the token can be sent by the syndication subscriber to the syndicated media provider to receive the syndicated media item.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising crediting an owner of the syndicated media item.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the syndication subscriber is authorized to receive the syndicated media item comprises determining whether the syndication subscriber has viewed a predetermined number of commercials.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of determining whether the syndication subscriber has viewed a predetermined number of commercials comprises:

requesting a number of commercials viewed by the syndication subscriber from a network content provider;

receiving a response comprising the number of commercials viewed by the syndication subscriber; and

determining whether the received number of commercials viewed by the syndication subscriber matches or exceeds the predetermined number of commercials.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the syndication subscriber is authorized to receive the syndicated media item comprises determining whether the subscriber belongs to another service.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of determining whether the subscriber belongs to another service comprises:

requesting from a network content provider the syndication subscriber'"'"'s membership status in one or more services; and

receiving a response comprising the syndication subscriber'"'"'s membership status in the one or more services.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein a positive determination of authorization is made if the subscriber can pay for the syndicated media item.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of determining whether the syndication subscriber is authorized to receive the syndicated media item further comprises:

requesting a subscriber payment status from a network content provider; and

receiving a response comprising the syndication subscriber'"'"'s payment status.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein an authorization computer and the network content provider are operated by different entities.

25. The method of claim 22, further comprising, in response to a negative determination of authorization, requesting payment from the syndication subscriber.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the syndication subscriber guarantees payment through a credit card.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising debiting a stored value account associated with the syndication subscriber.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the syndication subscriber is authorized to receive the syndicated media item further comprises:

accessing a user database;

using the syndication subscriber identifier to find a subscriber'"'"'s information on the user database; and

using the syndicated media identifier to determine from the subscriber'"'"'s information whether the user is authorized to receive the syndicated media item.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the syndication subscriber is authorized to receive the syndicated media item comprises determining whether a syndication subscriber'"'"'s subscription is in good standing.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndicated media provider, performs the step of determining whether the syndication subscriber is authorized to receive the syndicated media item identified by the syndicated media identifier.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndicated media provider is another syndication subscriber.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndicated media item is syndicated using a real simple syndication protocol.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndication aggregator is operated by a network content provider.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndication aggregator is operated by the syndication subscriber.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndicated media provider performs the step of authorizing the transmission of the syndicated media item to the syndication subscriber.

36. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndicated media is a video.

37. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndicated media is part of a podcast.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndicated media is a blog.

39. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndicated media is an audio file.

40. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndicated media is computer code.

41. A commercial syndication computer comprising:

a processing module;

a communication module; and

memory comprising,

message retrieval computer code, the message retrieval computer code configured to receive a first message from a syndication subscriber, the first message comprising a syndication subscriber identifier and a syndicated media item identifier that identifies a syndicated media item, the syndication subscriber receiving the syndicated media item identifier from a syndication aggregator; and

authorization computer code, the authorization computer code configured to determine whether the syndication subscriber is authorized to receive the syndicated media item identified by the syndicated media identifier, and to authorize the transmission of the syndicated media item to the syndication subscriber if a positive determination is made.

42. The commercial syndication computer of claim 41, wherein the memory further comprises a user database, the user database comprising user information indicating an authorization status for the syndicated media item.

43. The commercial syndication computer of claim 41, wherein the memory further comprises the syndicated media item.

44. The commercial syndication computer of claim 43, wherein the memory further comprises transmission computer code, the transmission computer code configured to transmit the syndicated media item to the syndication subscriber.

45. A method of displaying a syndication feed to a syndication subscriber, the method comprising:

examining the syndication feed to determine whether a link to a media item is a link to a premium media item, the syndication subscriber requires authorization to receive the premium media item; and

differentiating the link to the premium media item from a link to a non-premium media item when displaying the syndication feed to the syndication subscriber.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the link to the premium media is differentiated from the link to a non-premium media item by placing the feed in a section dedicated to premium content.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein the link to the premium media is differentiated from the link to a non-premium media item by displaying an icon adjacent to the link to the premium media item.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the icon displayed is selected from a plurality of icons, each icon identifying a different payment structure for the premium media item.

49. The method of claim 45, wherein a link to a media item is a link to a premium media item if the link points to an authorization website rather than a direct link to the media item.

50. The method of claim 45, wherein the link to a premium media item is provided in an <

enclosure>

subelement of the syndication feed.

51. The method of claim 45, wherein the link to an authorization website further comprises a syndicated media item identifier.

52. A syndication feed rendering, the rendering comprising:

a link to a premium media item; and

an indicator, that informs a syndication subscriber that the link to a premium media item requires authorization before the syndication subscriber can receive the premium media item.

53. The rendering of claim 52, wherein the indicator is a section dedicated to premium content.

54. The rendering of claim 52, wherein the indicator is an icon displayed adjacent to the link to the premium media item.

55. A syndication feed comprising:

a media item declaration; and

an indicator within the media item declaration that can be resolved to retrieve a media item, the indicator comprising a link to an authorization computer and a media item identifier.

56. The syndication feed of claim 55, wherein the authorization computer is a media item provider.

57. The syndication feed of claim 55, wherein the media item declaration is an <

enclosure>

subelement of the syndication feed.

58. The syndication feed of claim 55, wherein the authorization computer can provide instructions to a syndicated media subscriber in the event the syndicated media subscriber is unauthorized to receive the media item.