Methods, apparatus, and program products for inferring service usage
First Claim
1. A method for computing an estimated number of serviced clients, comprising:
- partitioning a plurality of keys into a plurality of key sets;
for each serviced client in a plurality of serviced clients;
selecting a key set from said plurality of key sets; and
providing a collection of keys from said key set to said serviced client;
selecting a key identifier from an intersection of key collections, where said intersection of key collections includes one or more associated keys associated with said plurality of serviced clients; and
computing an estimated number of said plurality of serviced clients from said key identifier, wherein the estimated number is associated with a predetermined confidence level.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Given the recent changes in the policy governing Internet content distribution, such as the institution of per listener royalties for Internet radio broadcasters, content distributors now have an incentive to under-report the size of their audience. Previous audience measurement schemes only protect against inflation of audience size. We present the first protocols for audience measurement that protect against both inflation and deflation attempts by content distributors. The protocols trade-off the amount of additional information the service providers must distribute to facilitate audience inference with the amount of infrastructure required and are applicable to Internet radio, web plagiarism, and software license enforcement. The protocols can be applied to other situations, such as auditing website screen scrapers and per-seat licensed software installations.
41 Citations
44 Claims
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1. A method for computing an estimated number of serviced clients, comprising:
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partitioning a plurality of keys into a plurality of key sets; for each serviced client in a plurality of serviced clients; selecting a key set from said plurality of key sets; and providing a collection of keys from said key set to said serviced client; selecting a key identifier from an intersection of key collections, where said intersection of key collections includes one or more associated keys associated with said plurality of serviced clients; and computing an estimated number of said plurality of serviced clients from said key identifier, wherein the estimated number is associated with a predetermined confidence level. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system that computes an estimated number of serviced clients, comprising:
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a network; a key server, in communication with the network, comprising; a partition mechanism configured to partition a plurality of keys into a plurality of key sets; a key distribution mechanism configured to; for each serviced client in a plurality of serviced clients; selecting a key set from said plurality of key sets; and providing a collection of keys from said key set to said serviced client; a service provider, in communication with the network, configured to select a key identifier from an intersection of key collections, where said intersection of key collections includes one or more associated keys associated with said plurality of serviced clients; and an audit client, in communication with the network, configured to compute an estimated number of said plurality of serviced clients from said key identifier, wherein the estimated number is associated with a predetermined confidence level. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for computing an estimated number of serviced clients, comprising:
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sending a request for a service; receiving a collection of keys belonging to one of a plurality of key sets; receiving a key identifier identifying a key in said collection of keys; and computing an estimated number of a plurality of serviced clients from said key identifier and information about said plurality of key sets, wherein the estimated number is associated with a predetermined confidence level. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. An apparatus that computes an estimated number of serviced clients, comprising:
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a network interface; a request mechanism configured to send a request for a service using the network interface; a first reception mechanism, responsive to the request mechanism, configured to receive a collection of keys belonging to one of a plurality of key sets; a second reception mechanism configured to receive a key identifier identifying a key in said collection of keys; and an inference mechanism configured to compute an estimated number of a plurality of serviced clients from said key identifier and information about said plurality of key sets, wherein the estimated number is associated with a predetermined confidence level. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method for computing an estimated number of serviced clients, comprising steps of:
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sending a request for a service; receiving a collection of keys belonging to one of a plurality of key sets; sending said collection of keys; receiving a key identifier identifying a key in said collection of keys; and utilizing said key to compute an estimated number of said plurality of serviced clients, wherein the estimated number is associated with a predetermined confidence level. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33)
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34. A method for computing an estimated number of serviced clients, comprising steps of:
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receiving one or more requests for a service from a plurality of serviced clients; receiving a key identification list for each of said one or more requests; and selecting a key identifier from an intersection of key collections responsive to said key identification list, where said intersection of key collections includes one or more associated keys associated with said plurality of serviced clients, wherein the one or more associated keys is used to compute an estimated number of said plurality of serviced clients, wherein the estimated number is associated with a predetermined confidence level. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A method for computing an estimated number of serviced clients, comprising steps of:
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partitioning a plurality of keys into a plurality of key sets; receiving a request for a service for one of a plurality of serviced clients; selecting a collection of keys from one of said plurality of key sets, said collection of keys identified by a key identification list; sending said collection of keys to said one of said plurality of serviced clients; sending said key identification list to a service provider; selecting a key identifier from an intersection of key collections, where said intersection of key collections includes one or more associated keys associated with said plurality of serviced clients; and computing an estimated number of said plurality of serviced clients from said key identifier, wherein the estimated number is associated with a predetermined confidence level. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44)
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Specification