Method and apparatus for discouraging commercial skipping
First Claim
1. A method of discouraging commercial skipping in a program broadcast as a sequence of segments including program segments, and commercial segments separated by segment dividers, said segment dividers having a divider characteristic, each segment being provided between two respective segment dividers, by a player adapted to detect at least one of said segment dividers and to skip a corresponding commercial segment, said method comprising inserting in said program a plurality of extraneous signals having said divider characteristic, each of said extraneous signals being inserted within one of said segments, wherein when said player receives said program, said player detects one of said extraneous signals erroneously as a segment divider and skips at least one of a portion of a program segment and a commercial segment.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A program includes sequential program segments, commercial segments, segment dividers delimiting the program and commercial segments and extraneous signals inserted into the segments. The extraneous signals are selected to mimic segment dividers and thus discourage recording of the program by a commercial skipping recorder device.
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Citations
18 Claims
- 1. A method of discouraging commercial skipping in a program broadcast as a sequence of segments including program segments, and commercial segments separated by segment dividers, said segment dividers having a divider characteristic, each segment being provided between two respective segment dividers, by a player adapted to detect at least one of said segment dividers and to skip a corresponding commercial segment, said method comprising inserting in said program a plurality of extraneous signals having said divider characteristic, each of said extraneous signals being inserted within one of said segments, wherein when said player receives said program, said player detects one of said extraneous signals erroneously as a segment divider and skips at least one of a portion of a program segment and a commercial segment.
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8. A method of generating a program received by a player adapted to skip commercials using segment dividers, said method comprising providing a sequence or program segments, commercial segments and segment dividers delimiting said program and commercial segments;
- and inserting in at least one of said program and commercial segment an extraneous signal that does not delimit one of said program segments from one of said commercial segments, said extraneous signal having characteristics selected to discourage recording the program without said commercial segments, said segment dividers and said extraneous signal having the same characteristics, wherein when said player receives said program, said player misinterprets an extraneous signal as a segment divider and skips one of an incomplete portion of a program segment and a portion of a commercial segment.
- View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
Specification