Mediated Lending of Digital Items

• US 20120254303A1
• Filed: 03/29/2011
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Anbalagan, Karthik G., Anderson, Emily Margaret, Killalea, Tom, Pakhomova, Valeria A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,635,277 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Digital items may be lent from one user to another. A lending system may facilitate matching users that have a digital item to lend with users that wish to borrow a digital item. Each user may have a reputation associated with his or her lending behavior that is represented as a lending metric. The lending metric may show whether a given user is primarily a lender or borrower of digital items. Heavy borrowers that do not engage in commensurate lending may be penalized. Multiple users that lend and borrow digital items from one another may be connected in a social network. The nature of a relationship in the social network may and the lending metrics of users are factors used to make lending decisions.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage media storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, instruct a processor to perform acts comprising:

determining a number of digital items lent by a user;

increasing a lending metric associated with the user based at least in part on the number of digital items lent by the user;

determining a number of digital items borrowed by the user; and

decreasing the lending metric based at least in part on the number of digital items borrowed by the user.

2. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the digital items comprise electronic books.

3. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the lending metric comprises the number of digital items lent by the user minus the number of digital items borrowed by the user.

4. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein an amount the lending metric decreases when one digital item is borrowed by the user is less than an amount the lending metric increases when one digital item is lent by the user.

5. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the determining a number of digital items lent by the user and the determining a number of digital items borrowed by the user excludes free digital items.

6. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the determining a number of digital items lent by the user further comprises determining a number of unique recipients for the digital items lent by the user and the lending metric associated with the user is based at least in part on the number of unique recipients.

7. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the digital items lent by the user and the digital items borrowed by the user are digital items lent to and borrowed from a single other user.

8. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, further comprising providing an award to the user when the lending metric exceeds a threshold value.

9. The computer-readable storage media of claim 8, wherein the award comprises a non-monetary award.

10. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, further comprising presenting the lending metric.

11. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein the presenting the lending metric comprises presenting the number of digital items lent by the user and the number of digital items borrowed by the user.

12. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein the presenting the lending metric comprises presenting the lending metric in a profile of the user.

13. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein the presenting the lending metric comprises presenting a non-numerical representation of the lending metric, the non-numerical representation based at least in part on a numerical value of the lending metric.

14. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, further comprising presenting the lending metric to other users connected to the user in a social network and not presenting the metric to other users that are not connected to the user in the social network.

15. The computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein connections are formed between users in the social network when one of the users lends a digital item to or borrows a digital item from another one of the Users.

16. The computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the social network comprises other users that are followers of the user or other users that are followed by the user, and wherein the user is connected to the followed users and the following users in the social network.

17. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with specific executable instructions,

indicating availability of a digital item for borrowing from a first user who is associated with a lending metric;

receiving an indication that a second user desires to borrow the digital item from the first user;

facilitating lending of the digital item from the first user to the second user; and

responsive to the facilitating, increasing the lending metric associated with the first user.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the digital item is eligible for lending a limited number of times.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the limited number of times is specified by an entity having rights in the digital item.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein indicating availability of the digital item for borrowing comprises providing an indication to a single potential borrower.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein indicating availability of the digital item for borrowing comprises providing an indication to two or more potential borrowers.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the two or more potential borrowers comprise other users having a characteristic specified by the first user.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the first user is prevented from consuming the digital item during the duration of the lending of the digital item from the first user to the second user.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein increasing the lending metric associated with the first user comprises increasing the lending metric by an amount based at least in part on one of a purchase price of the digital item, a rating of the digital item, a rank of the digital item, a number of users waiting to borrow the digital item, an amount of time since the digital item was released, or a status of the digital item as consumed or not consumed by the first user.

25. A computer-readable storage media storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, instruct a processor to perform acts comprising:

indicating that a digital item of a first user is available for borrowing from the first user;

receiving an indication that a second user desires to borrow the digital item from the first user;

determining if the second user has previously borrowed the digital item from the first user or from another user;

at least partly in response to determining that the second user has not previously borrowed the digital item, facilitating lending of the digital item from the first user to the second user; and

at least partly in response to determining that the second user has previously borrowed the digital item, refraining from facilitating lending of the digital item to the second user and/or refraining from indicating to the second user that the digital item of the first user is available for borrowing.

26. The computer-readable storage media of claim 25, wherein the facilitating lending of the digital item from the first user to the second user comprises increasing a lending metric of the first user and decreasing a lending metric of the second user.

27. The computer-readable storage media of claim 25, wherein the refraining from facilitating lending of the digital item to the second user and/or refraining from indicating to the second user that the digital item of the first user is available for borrowing comprises generating a consolation message for the second user.

28. A computing system for facilitating lending and borrowing of digital items, the computing system comprising:

one or more processors;

memory accessible by the one or more processors;

a request module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to receive a request from a user to borrow a digital item;

a queuing module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to place the request from the user in a queue to receive a loan of the digital item;

a lending module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to provide the user with access to the digital item when the request from the user reaches a top of the queue; and

a lending metric module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to decrease a lending metric associated with the user when the user receives access to the digital item.

29. The computing system of claim 28, wherein the digital item comprises one of an electronic book, an audio item, a video item, a multimedia item, or a graphical item.

30. The computing system of claim 28, wherein the request is inferred by the request module when the user includes the digital item in a list of multiple digital items.

31. The computing system of claim 28, wherein:

the queuing module prevents the user from placing a request in the queue when the lending metric associated with the user is less than a threshold level;

or

the lending module refrains from providing the user with access to the digital item when the lending metric associated with the user is less than the threshold level.

32. The computing system of claim 31, wherein the position of the request from the user in the queue is based at least in part on a number of copies of the digital item available to borrow and a number of user requests in the queue.

33. The computing system of claim 31, wherein the notification module notifies the user of a number of other user requests in the queue in front of the request from the user.

34. The computing system of claim 31, wherein the notification module generates a notification for the user of an estimated amount of time until the request from the user reaches the top of the queue.

35. The computing system of claim 28, wherein the queuing module is configured to modify or set a position in the queue of the request from the user based at least in part on the lending metric associated with the user.

36. The computing system of claim 35, wherein the queuing module is configured to move the request from the user to the top of the queue or place the request from the user to the top of the queue when the lending metric associated with the user is more than a threshold level.

37. The computing system of claim 28, further comprising a notification module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to notify the user of a position of the request from the user in the queue.

38. The computing system of claim 28, further comprising a timing module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to prevent the user from accessing the digital item upon expiration of a predetermined time period.

39. The computing system of claim 38, wherein the timing module determines a consumption rate at which that the user consumes the digital item and, based at least in part on the consumption rate, determines if the user will consume the entire digital item before expiration of the predetermined time period.

40. The computing system of claim 39, wherein the timing module generates an indication for the user when the timing module determines that the user will not consume the entire digital item before expiration of the predetermined time period.

41. The computing system of claim 40, wherein the indication informs the user of a consumption speed sufficient to consume the entire digital item before expiration of the predetermined time period.

42. The computing system of claim 40, wherein the indication offers the user a discount for purchase of the digital content item.