Method for tracing the distribution of physical digital media

• US 6,754,346 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2002
• Issued: 06/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ronald M. Eiserling, Steven P. Eiserling
• Original Assignee: Ronald M. Eiserling, Steven P. Eiserling
• Inventors: Eiserling, Ronald M, Eiserling, Steven P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baum, Ronald
• Application Number:
  US10/210,012
• Publication Number:
  US 20040025038A1
• Time in Patent Office: 692 Days
• Field of Search: 705/57-58, 380/202
• US Class Current: 380/202
• 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]

Abstract

A method for tracing the distribution of physical digital media and reporting feedback to a content provider regarding whether the profile of the user of the physical digital media corresponds to known profile. Identifying data is gathered from a user'"'"'s computer and transmitted to a host. The host performs pattern matching to determine whether the identifying data matches stored profile information.

Claims

1. A method for tracing the distribution of physical digital media and reporting feedback to a content provider regarding whether the profile of the use of the physical digital media corresponds to a known profile, comprising the steps of:

providing a host computer with a database of user profile records;

enveloping digital content within packaging software, the packaging software providing an interface for accessing said digital content;

recording the enveloped digital content and a content identifier on the physical digital media, the content identifier identifying at least one of a type of said digital content and the content provider;

distributing the digital media to a user;

mounting and executing the digital media on the user'"'"'s computer;

the packaging software gathering identifying data identifying the user'"'"'s profile from the user'"'"'s computer to facilitate determining whether the user'"'"'s profile corresponds to a known profile and encoding the identifying data into a key;

the packaging software searching for an active network connection and transmitting the key to the host computer if an active network connection is located;

wherein communications between the host and the user'"'"'s computer are uni-directional, flowing from the user'"'"'s computer to the host;

receiving the key on the host computer and decoding the key into identifying data, performing pattern matching to analyze matches between the identifying data and the database of user profile records;

reporting information to the content provider identifying user profile record(s) which at least partially match the identifying data.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the key is transmitted to the host through one of a direct network connection and through a proxy.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of encrypting the key prior to transmitting the key to the host computer.

5. The method according the claim 1, wherein the key includes information identifying the portion(s) of the content accessed by the user.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

prompting the user to provide voluntary information;

encoding the voluntary information into the key; and

providing the content provider with the voluntary information.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

recording a unique serial number on each digital media;

associating a selected said serial number with each user profile record;

wherein the packaging software reads the serial number from the media and includes the serial number in the identifying data encoded into the key; and

reporting to the content provider information identifying the user profile record corresponding to the serial number decoded from the key.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the packaging software prompts the user to initiate a network connection if no active network connection is located and transmits the key to the host upon detection of an active network connection.

3. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of:

capturing on the host computer the network address of the computer which transmitted the key to the host computer;

cross-referencing the network address with at least one of an internet registry and a domain name service to determine the owner of the network address, and reporting the name of the owner to the content provider.

8. A method for tracing the number of times digital content is accessed by different computers, where a computer is judged to be distinct if identifying data gathered from the computer does not match stored user profile data, comprising the steps of:

enveloping digital content within packaging software, the packaging software providing an interface for accessing said digital content;

recording on the physical digital media the unique serial number, the encrypted digital content and the packaging software;

each time the digital media is mounted and executed,

the packaging software reads the serial number from the digital media, gathers identifying data from the user'"'"'s computer and encodes the serial number and identifying data into a key;

the packaging software searches for an active network connection and transmits the key to the host computer if an active network connection is located;

where communications between the user'"'"'s computer and the host are uni-directional, flowing from the user'"'"'s computer to the host;

receiving the key on the host and decoding the key into the identifying data and the serial number;

performing pattern matching to analyze matches between the identifying data and the user profile records; and

reporting to the content provider information identifying the user profile record(s) which at least partially match the identifying data.

9. The method according to claim 8 further comprising the step of:

storing in the database of user profile records the identifying data and the serial number if no match is found between the identifying data and the user profile records.