Management of podcasts

• US 20070299978A1
• Filed: 06/27/2006
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Neumann, David Lawrence, Jones, Anne, Wiese, Mike, Heller, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,966,362 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

Improved techniques that facilitate the use of podcasts are disclosed. The improved techniques can pertain to publishing, hosting, accessing, subscribing, managing, organizing, searching, browsing, transferring, and/or playing podcasts. According to one aspect, tags are embedded into syndication feeds (e.g., RSS feeds) that may be made available for distribution by an online media store to facilitate the management of podcasts. Such tags can include a block tag that may be embedded into a syndication feed to indicate whether the feed is to be blocked from being included in the online media store. According to another aspect, management of podcasts may be facilitated by other mechanisms. In accordance with one embodiment, a user may challenge the ownership of a podcast to block or remove a podcast from the online media store. In accordance with another embodiment, images may be stored to allow efficient retrieval of the corresponding episode(s) of a podcast.

Claims

1. A method of processing a podcast, comprising:

obtaining a podcast, the podcast having podcast metadata content and podcast media content;

determining whether the podcast metadata content includes a block tag; and

when it is determined that the podcast metadata content includes a block tag, at least one of removing the podcast media content and marking the podcast media content as being blocked from being accessed.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the podcast media content is marked as being blocked from being accessed; and

blocking access to the podcast media content when it is determined that the podcast media content is marked as being blocked from being accessed.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein removing the podcast media content includes at least one of removing at least one URL associated with the podcast media content and deleting one or more episodes of the podcast.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the podcast media content includes a plurality of episodes, the method further comprising:

determining whether the block tag is associated with the podcast or one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast;

wherein when the block tag is associated with the podcast, each of the plurality of episodes of the podcast is at least one of removed and marked as being blocked from being accessed; and

wherein when the block tag is associated with one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast, the one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast is at least one of removed and marked as being blocked from being accessed

5. The method as recited in claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining a value of the block tag;

wherein at least one of removing a URL associated with the podcast media content, deleting the podcast media content and marking the podcast media content as being blocked from being accessed is performed when the value of the block tag is in a block state.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising:

determining whether the podcast media content is marked as being blocked from being accessed; and

blocking access to the podcast media content when it is determined that the podcast media content is marked as being blocked from being accessed.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, the method further comprising:

determining whether the value of the block tag has changed;

wherein at least one of removing a URL associated with the podcast media content, deleting the podcast media content and marking the podcast media content as being blocked from being accessed is performed when the value of the block tag is in a block state and the value of the block tag has changed.

8. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the podcast media content includes a plurality of episodes, the method further comprising:

determining whether the block tag is associated with the podcast or one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast;

wherein at least one of removing a URL associated with the podcasts, deleting all of the plurality of episodes of the podcast and marking all of the plurality of episodes of the podcast as being blocked from being accessed is performed when the value of the block tag is in a block state and the block tag is associated with the podcast; and

wherein at least one of removing a URL associated with one of the plurality of podcasts, deleting the one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast and marking the one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast as being blocked from being accessed is performed when the value of the block tag is in a block state and the block tag is associated with the one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast.

9. The method as recited in claim 5, the method further comprising:

wherein at least one of restoring the podcast media content and marking the podcast media content as being unblocked from being accessed is performed when the value of the block tag is in an unblock state.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, the method further comprising:

determining whether the value of the block tag has changed;

wherein at least one of restoring the podcast media content and marking the podcast media content as being unblocked from being accessed is performed when the value of the block tag is in an unblock state and the value of the block tag has changed.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the podcast media content includes a plurality of episodes, the method further comprising:

determining whether the block tag is associated with the podcast or one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast;

wherein at least one of restoring all of the plurality of episodes of the podcast and marking all of the plurality of episodes of the podcast as being unblocked from being accessed is performed when the value of the block tag is in an unblock state and the block tag is associated with the podcast; and

wherein at least one of restoring one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast and marking the one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast as being unblocked from being accessed is performed when the value of the block tag is in an unblock state and the block tag is associated with the one of the plurality of episodes of the podcast.

12. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein restoring the podcast media content includes storing at least one URL associated with the podcast media content.

13. A method of verifying ownership of a podcast, comprising:

receiving a claim of ownership of the podcast from a challenger, the podcast including podcast metadata content and podcast media content;

sending a code to the challenger; and

verifying that the code exists at a URL of the podcast.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the challenger is identified by at least one of a name and an email address.

15. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein verifying that the code exists at a URL of the podcast comprises:

verifying that the code exists in the podcast metadata content.

16. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein verifying that the code exists at a URL of the podcast comprises:

verifying that the code exists in a file available at the URL of the podcast.

17. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein when verifying that the code exists at the URL of the podcast is successful, providing access to the podcast via the Internet.

18. The method as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

removing or blocking access to the podcast when verifying that the code exists at the URL of the podcast is successful.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein access is provided in a store via a server.

20. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein when verifying that the code exists at the URL of the podcast is successful, associating the challenger with the podcast.

21. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein when verifying that the code exists at the URL of the podcast is successful, the method further comprising:

removing an association between a submitter of the podcast and the podcast.

22. A method of storing data associated with a podcast, comprising:

obtaining a stored image associated with the podcast;

obtaining a first signature calculated based upon the stored image;

obtaining a current image associated with the podcast at a URL of the podcast;

calculating a second signature based upon the current image; and

when the first signature is not equal to the second signature, replacing the stored image with the current image.

23. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein when the first signature is equal to the second signature, the stored image is not replaced with the current image.

24. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the podcast includes podcast metadata content and podcast media content, wherein the podcast media content includes one or more episodes, wherein the stored image and the current image are associated with one of the episodes.

25. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the method is performed when the episode is selected.