Electronic copyright royalty accounting system using glyphs
First Claim
1. A system to measure and accrue copyright royalties due as a result of printing a copyrighted document on a document printer, including:
- a digitized representation of the copyrighted document having a printable code on each page thereof, said representation being provided for reproduction by the document printer;
an image processing device for detecting the presence of the printable code in said digitized representation of the copyrighted document;
a decoder for transforming the printable code into a digital representation of alphanumeric characters;
a parser, responsive to said decoder, for determining whether the alphanumeric characters indicate that a copyright royalty is required for reproduction of the copyrighted document; and
accounting means for recording the copyright royalty due.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is a system for utilizing a printable, yet unobtrusive glyph or similar two-dimensionally encoded mark to identify copyrighted documents. Upon attempting to reproduce such a document, the glyph is detected, decoded and used to accurately collect and/or record a copyright royalty for the reproduction of the document, or to prevent such reproduction. Furthermore, the glyph may also include additional information so as to enable an electronic copyright royalty accounting system, capable of interpreting the encoded information, to track and/or account for copyright royalties which accrue during reproduction of all or portions of the original document.
593 Citations
42 Claims
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1. A system to measure and accrue copyright royalties due as a result of printing a copyrighted document on a document printer, including:
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a digitized representation of the copyrighted document having a printable code on each page thereof, said representation being provided for reproduction by the document printer; an image processing device for detecting the presence of the printable code in said digitized representation of the copyrighted document; a decoder for transforming the printable code into a digital representation of alphanumeric characters; a parser, responsive to said decoder, for determining whether the alphanumeric characters indicate that a copyright royalty is required for reproduction of the copyrighted document; and accounting means for recording the copyright royalty due. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An apparatus, associated with a reprographic device, for tracking the reproduction of at least a portion of a copyrighted document having a visible self-clocking glyph code on each page thereof, said apparatus comprising:
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a scanning mechanism for scanning the visible self-clocking glyph code contained on at least a portion of a document page being reproduced by said reprographic device and generating a plurality of digital signals representative thereof; memory for storing the digital signals generated by said digital scanning means; and a decoder for decoding digital signals representative of the visible self-clocking glyph code within the stored digital signals to determine if a copyright royalty is associated with the reproduced page. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. An apparatus to prevent the unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted materials on a document printer, including:
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an original document, input for reproduction by the document printer, said original document having a printable self-clocking glyph code on each page thereof; means for sensing the presence of the printable self-clocking glyph code on at least one page of said original document; means for decoding the printable self-clocking glyph code; means, responsive to said decoding means, for determining that the document is copyrighted; and means for disabling the document printer, thereby preventing the reproduction of the document upon a determination that the document is copyrighted. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31)
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32. A method of detecting a requirement for payment of copyright royalties as a result of printing a copyrighted document on a document printer, including:
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scanning at least a portion of the copyrighted document to produce a digitized representation thereof, said copyrighted document having a printable self-clocking glyph code on each page thereof; detecting the presence of the printable self-clocking glyph code in the digitized representation of the scanned portion of the copyrighted document; decoding the printable self-clocking glyph code; and determining, from said decoding step, if a copyright royalty is required for reproduction of the copyrighted document. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification