NOVEL MEDIA FILE ACCESS AND STORAGE SOLUTION FOR MULTI-WORKSTATION/MULTI-PLATFORM NON-LINEAR VIDEO EDITING SYSTEMS

• US 20110167036A1
• Filed: 06/19/2009
• Published: 07/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EditShare LLC
• Original Assignee: Andrew Liebman
• Inventors: Liebman, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 9,552,843 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/608
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D

Abstract

A novel system, method and computer program product for accessing digital media files stored in a media storage device via a server device in communication with the media storage device. The method provides a Project Sharing feature for enabling collaborative sharing of Non Linear Editing (NLE) Projects, even though the NLE application might normally define and save Projects as a single monolithic project file. The system and method provides a file directory and symlink scheme that allows ALL editors who are “members” of a Project Space to see all the bins created by all other editors, but controlling the WRITE ACCESS to the bins according to whose “User Folder” the bins resided in, i.e., a user-based locking scheme is provided to allow control over who can and cannot write to a file. The system and method further treats a single monolithic project file as a collection of smaller Project files, the permissions and ownerships of which could each be controlled independently.

Claims

1-34. -34. (canceled)

35. A system for enabling collaboration on one or more video editing Projects that run on a non-linear video editing (NLE) program, the system comprising:

a Shared Project space within a hierarchical file structure on a computer-accessible storage device, the Shared Project space being associated with one or more editors;

one or more automatically created Project Folders corresponding to one or more shared video editing Projects, each of the one or more Project Folders containing one or more automatically created User Folders, each of the one or more User Folders being uniquely associated with one of the one or more editors; and

at least one file stored within at least one of the one or more Project Folders or User Folders, the file having automatically assigned ownership, permissions, or both, based at least in part on the folder within which the file resides;

wherein the at least one file can be viewed, created, modified, moved, and/or deleted only as permitted by the ownership, permissions, or both, that are assigned to the file.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the contents of the User Folders are viewable by all editors associated with the Shared Project space within which the User Folders reside.

37. The system of claim 35, further wherein the system is configured to enable transferring one of the at least one file from a first editor of the one or more editors to a second editor of the one or more editors.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the one of the at least one files is transferred by way of a Group Project Folder and the ownership, permissions, or both, are automatically updated.

39. The system of claim 37, wherein the one of the at least one files is transferred by way of an Unprotected Folder and the ownership, permissions, or both, are automatically updated.

40. The system of claim 37, wherein the one of the at least one files is transferred directly from a first editor'"'"'s User Folder directly to a second editor'"'"'s User Folder and the ownership, permissions, or both, are automatically updated.

41. The system of claim 37, wherein the system is configured to provide a predetermined amount of time during which transfer can be undone before the ownership, permissions, or both, are automatically updated.

42. The system of claim 35, further comprising an automatically created Group Project File Folder that is located within the Project Folder and that is separate from the one or more User Folders;

wherein the Group Project File Folder is configured in such a way that any of the one or more editors is allowed to rearrange the contents of the Group Project File Folder into subject matter subfolders; and

wherein ownership, permissions, or both, are automatically assigned such that contents of the Group Project File Folder are designated read only to the one or more editors.

43. The system of claim 35, wherein the NLE program saves metadata associated with each of the one or more Projects as one or more files or as a single monolithic and non-divisible file.

44. The system of claim 35, further comprising:

for each of the one or more editors, one or more virtual views that are each configured to present information to only one corresponding editor, each of the one or more views comprising;

a symbolic link that points to the corresponding editor'"'"'s associated User Folder;

an automatically created Other Users folder that is separate from the symbolic link to the corresponding editor'"'"'s associated User Folder; and

for each contents additional editor of the one or more editors that is not the one corresponding editor, a symbolic link automatically placed inside the Other Users folder that points to the additional editor'"'"'s associated User Folder;

wherein the one or more views enable the one or more editors to view the contents of all of the one or more associated User Folders for one of the one or more Projects.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein each of the one or more views further comprises a symbolic link to an Unprotected Folder and a symbolic link to a Group Project File Folder.

46. A computer-implemented method for enabling collaboration on one or more video editing Projects that run on a non-linear video editing (NLE) program, the method comprising:

establishing a Shared Project space within a hierarchical file structure on a computer-accessible storage device, the Shared Project space being associated with one or more editors;

automatically creating one or more Project Folders corresponding to one or more shared video editing Projects, each of the one or more Project Folders containing one or more automatically created User Folders, each of the one or more User Folders being uniquely associated with one of the one or more editors;

storing at least one file within at least one of the one or more Project Folders or User Folders; and

automatically assigning ownership, permissions, or both, to the at least one file based at least in part on the folder within which the file resides;

wherein the at least one file can be viewed, created, modified, moved, and/or deleted only as permitted by the ownership, permissions, or both, that are assigned to the file.

47. The computer-implemented method of claim 46, wherein the contents of the User Folders are viewable by all editors associated with the Shared Project space within which the User Folders reside.

48. The computer-implemented method of claim 46, further comprising transferring one of the at least one files from a first editor of the one or more editors to a second editor of the one or more editors.

49. The computer-implemented method of claim 48, wherein transferring the one of the at least one files comprises:

transferring the one of the at least one files by way of a Group Project Folder; and

automatically updating the ownership, permissions, or both.

50. The computer-implemented method of claim 48, wherein transferring the one of the at least one files comprises:

transferring the one of the at least one files directly from a first editor'"'"'s User Folder directly to a second editor'"'"'s User Folder; and

automatically updating the ownership, permissions, or both.

51. The computer-implemented method of claim 48, further comprising providing a predetermined amount of time during which the transferring of the at least one file can be undone before the ownership, permissions, or both, are automatically updated.

52. The computer-implemented method of claim 46, further comprising:

for each of the one or more editors, creating one or more virtual views that are each configured to present information to only one corresponding editor;

for each of the one or more views, automatically creating a symbolic link that points to the corresponding editor'"'"'s associated User Folder;

for each of the one or more views, automatically creating an Other Users folder that is separate from the symbolic link to the corresponding editor'"'"'s associated User Folder; and

for each of the one or more views, automatically creating additional symbolic links that point to the User Folder of each additional editor that is not the corresponding editor and placing the additional symbolic links inside the Other Users folder;

wherein the one or more views enable the one or more editors to view the contents of all of the one or more associated User Folders for one of the one or more Projects.

54. A computer-readable storage medium with an executable program stored thereon, wherein the program contains instructions to execute steps for enabling collaboration on one or more video editing Projects that run on a non-linear video editing (NLE) program, the steps comprising:

establishing a Shared Project space within a hierarchical file structure on a computer-accessible storage device, the Shared Project space being associated with one or more editors;

automatically creating one or more Project Folders corresponding to one or more shared video editing Projects, each of the one or more Project Folders containing one or more automatically created User Folders, each of the one or more User Folders being uniquely associated with one of the one or more editors;

storing at least one file within at least one of the one or more Project Folders or User Folders; and

automatically assigning ownership, permissions, or both, to the at least one file based at least in part on the folder within which the file resides;

wherein the at least one file can be viewed, created, modified, moved, and/or deleted only as permitted by the ownership, permissions, or both, that are assigned to the file.