Systems and methods for acquisition, evaluation, inventory, distribution, and/or re-sale of pre-owned recorded data products

• US 7,343,330 B1
• Filed: 06/26/2001
• Issued: 03/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Eimar M. Boesjes, Timothy C.A. Molteno
• Original Assignee: Eimar M. Boesjes, Timothy C.A. Molteno
• Inventors: Molteno, Timothy C. A., Boesjes, Eimar M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rudy; Andrew Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Frenel; Vanel
• Application Number:
  US09/893,293
• Time in Patent Office: 2,450 Days
• Field of Search: 705/16, 705/28, 283/56
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Data integrity of recorded data products is quantitatively evaluated by enumeration of unreadable, uncorrected, and/or corrected data subsets, and/or by measuring over-sampling of corrected data subsets. Quantitative data integrity evaluation facilitates commerce in pre-owned data products, through pre-owned product re-sellers and/or directly between owners and buyers. Quantitative data integrity evaluation, in conjunction with pre-owned product commerce or performed independently, provides opportunities for gathering product information for data products, including content signature or other unique content-identifying data, for incorporation into product information database(s). Data integrity evaluation, pre-owned data product commerce, and/or data product information gathering may be conducted online. Data integrity evaluation, pre-owned product commerce, and/or data product information gathering may provide opportunities for revenue generation.

Claims

1. A method for acquisition, evaluation, inventory, distribution, and re-sale of pre-owned recorded data products by a data product re-seller, the method comprising:

reading, using a readout device operatively coupled to a programmed electronic processor, data from a data product offered by an owner of the data product;

comparing, by means of the programmed electronic processor, data read from the data product with data in a data product information database, the product information database residing on a storage medium operatively coupled to the programmed electronic processor;

identifying, by means of the programmed electronic processor, the data product, if the data product is identified as being listed in the data product information database;

enumerating, by means of the programmed electronic processor,

a) subsets of the data read from the data product that are unreadable, and subsets of the data read from the data product that are erroneously read and uncorrected or,

b) subsets of the data read from the data product that are unreadable, and subsets of the data read from the data product that are initially erroneously read and subsequently corrected,

or

c) subsets of the data read from the data product that are erroneously read and uncorrected, and subsets of the data read from the data product that are initially erroneously read and subsequently corrected;

computing, by means of the programmed electronic processor, a quantitative data integrity rating for the data product using

a) enumeration of subsets of the data read from the data product that are unreadable, and enumeration of subsets of the data read from the data product that are erroneously read and uncorrected or,

b) enumeration of subsets of the data read from the data product that are unreadable, and enumeration of subsets of the data read from the data product that are initially erroneously read and subsequently corrected,

or

c) enumeration of subsets of the data read from the data product that are erroneously read and uncorrected, and enumeration of subsets of the data read from the data product that are initially erroneously read and subsequently corrected;

determining, by means of the programmed electronic processor, a purchase price for the data product to be offered by the re-seller to the owner of the data product, the purchase price being determined based on i) the quantitative data integrity rating for the data product, and ii) inventory information for the data product from a data product inventory database, order information for the data product in a data product order database, or previous purchase and re-sale information for the data product from a data product sales database, the data product inventory database, the data product order database, and the data product sales database residing on a storage medium operatively coupled to the programmed electronic processor;

updating, by means of the programmed electronic processor and in response to a purchase of the data product from the owner by the re-seller, inventory information for the data product in the data product inventory database;

determining, by means of the programmed electronic processor, a re-sale price for the data product to be offered by the re-seller to a buyer of the data product, the re-sale price being determined based on i) the quantitative data integrity rating for the data product, and ii) inventory information for the data product in the data product inventory database, order information for the data product in the data product order database, or purchase and re-sale information for the data product in the data product sales database; and

updating, by means of the programmed electronic processor and in response to a re-sale of the data product by the re-seller to the buyer, inventory information for the data product in the data product inventory database, order information for the data product in the data product order database, or purchase and re-sale information for the data product in the data product sales database.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data product comprises a CD.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data product comprises a DVD.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising prompting a user to enter data product information for the data product into the data product information database, if the data product is not identified as being listed in the product information database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data product is a music CD, the data product databases are music CD databases, and the method further comprises:

reading and storing in the music CD information database any of track information, title, and artist from the CD that is not already stored in the music CD database;

prompting a user to scan cover art of the music CD and storing cover art thus scanned into the music CD information database, if the cover art is not already present in the music CD database;

prompting a user to scan lyrics of the music CD and storing lyrics thus scanned into the music CD information database, if the lyrics are not already present in the music CD database;

or

prompting a user to scan liner notes of the music CD and storing liner notes thus scanned into the music CD information database, if the liner notes are not already present in the music CD database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data product is a music CD, the data product information database is a music CD information database, and the method further comprises:

analyzing, by means of the programmed electronic processor, music data recorded on tracks of the music CD to generate unique track identification data therefor; and

storing the generated track identification information in the music CD information database.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling the buyer independently to evaluate quantitatively the integrity of the data set recorded on a re-sold data product and to compute the quantitative data integrity rating for the re-sold data product, thereby enabling the buyer to verify the quantitative data integrity rating of the re-sold data product and to compare it to a re-seller-reported quantitative data integrity rating.

8. A method for acquisition, evaluation, inventory, distribution, and re-sale of pre-owned recorded data products by a data product re-seller, the method comprising:

reading, using a readout device operatively coupled to a programmed electronic processor, data from a data product offered by an owner of the data product;

comparing, by means of the programmed electronic processor, data read from the data product with data in a data product information database, the product information database residing on a storage medium operatively coupled to the programmed electronic processor;

identifying, by means of the programmed electronic processor, the data product, if the data product is identified as being listed in the data product information database;

enumerating, by means of the programmed electronic processor, data subsets that are initially erroneously read and subsequently corrected using error correaction codes included on the data product;

computing, by means of the programmed electronic processor, a quantitative data integrity rating for the data set using the enumeration of erroneously-read-and-corrected data subsets;

determining, by means of the programmed electronic processor, a purchase price for the data product to be offered by the re-seller to the owner of the data product, the purchase price being determined based on i) the quantitative data integrity rating for the data product, and ii) inventory information for the data product from a data product inventory database, order information for the data product in a data product order database, or previous purchase and re-sale information for the data product from a data product sales database, the data product inventory database, the data product order database, and the data product sales database residing on a storage medium operatively coupled to the programmed electronic processor;

updating, by means of the programmed electronic processor and in response to a purchase of the data product from the owner by the re-seller, inventory information for the data product in the data product inventory database;

determining, by means of the programmed electronic processor, a re-sale price for the data product to be offered by the re-seller to a buyer of the data product, the re-sale price being determined based on i) the quantitative data integrity rating for the data product, and ii) inventory information for the data product in the data product inventory database, order information for the data product in the data product order database, or purchase and re-sale information for the data product in the data product sales database; and

updating, by means of the programmed electronic processor and in response to a re-sale of the data product by the re-seller to the buyer, inventory information for the data product in the data product inventory database, order information for the data product in the data product order database, or purchase and re-sale information for the data product in the data product sales database.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the data product comprises a CD.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the data product comprises a DVD.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising prompting a user to enter data product information for the data product into the data product information database, if the data product is not identified as being listed in the product information database.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the data product is a music CD, the data product databases are music CD databases, and the method further comprises:

reading and storing in the music CD information database any of track information, title, and artist from the CD that is not already stored in the music CD database;

prompting a user to scan cover art of the music CD and storing cover art thus scanned into the music CD information database, if the cover art is not already present in the music CD database;

prompting a user to scan lyrics of the music CD and storing lyrics thus scanned into the music CD information database, if the lyrics are not already present in the music CD database;

or

prompting a user to scan liner notes of the music CD and storing liner notes thus scanned into the music CD information database, if the liner notes are not already present in the music CD database.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the data product is a music CD, the data product information database is a music CD information database, and the method further comprises:

analyzing, by means of the programmed electronic processor, music data recorded on tracks of the music CD to generate unique track identification data therefor; and

storing the generated track identification information in the music CD information database.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising enabling the buyer independently to evaluate quantitatively the integrity of the data set recorded on a re-sold data product and to compute the data integrity rating for the re-sold data product, thereby enabling the buyer to verify the data integrity rating of the re-sold data product and to compare it to re-seller-reported data integrity rating.

15. A method for acquisition, evaluation, inventory, distribution, and re-sale of pre-owned recorded data products by a data product re-seller, the method comprising:

reading, using a readout device operatively coupled to a programmed electronic processor, data from a data product offered by an owner of the data product;

comparing, by means of the programmed electronic processor, data read from the data product with data in a data product information database, the product information database residing on a storage medium operatively coupled to the programmed electronic processor;

identifying, by means of the programmed electronic processor, the data product, if the data product is identified as being listed in the data product information database;

enumerating, by means of the programmed electronic processor, data subsets that are initially erroneously read and subsequently corrected using error correaction codes included on the data product;

determining, by means of the programmed electronic processor, an over-sampled rating for the erroneously-read-and-corrected data subsets;

computing, by means of the programmed electronic processor, a quantitative data integrity rating for the data product using enumeration of the erroneously-read-and-correct data subsets and the over-sampled rating of the erroneously-read-and-corrected data subsets;

determining, by means of the programmed electronic processor, a purchase price for the data product to be offered by the re-seller to the owner of the data product, the purchase price being determined based on i) the quantitative data integrity rating for the data product, and ii) inventory information for the data product from a data product inventory database, order information for the data product in a data product order database, or previous purchase and re-sale information for the data product from a data product sales database, the data product inventory database, the data product order database, and the data product sales database residing on a storage medium operatively coupled to the programmed electronic processor;

updating, by means of the programmed electronic processor and in response to a purchase of the data product from the owner by the re-seller, inventory information for the data product in the data product inventory database;

determining, by means of the programmed electronic processor, a re-sale price for the data product to be offered by the re-seller to a buyer of the data product, the re-sale price being determined based on i) the quantitative data integrity rating for the data product, and ii) inventory information for the data product in the data product inventory database, order information for the data product in the data product order database, or purchase and re-sale information for the data product in the data product sales database; and

updating, by means of the programmed electronic processor and in response to a re-sale of the data product by the re-seller to the buyer, inventory information for the data product in the data product inventory database, order information for the data product in the data product order database, or purchase and re-sale information for the data product in the data product sales database.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the data product comprises a CD.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the data product comprises a DVD.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising prompting a user to enter data product information for the data product into the data product information database, if the data product is not identified as being listed in the product information database.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the data product is a music CD, the data product databases are music CD databases, and the method further comprises:

reading and storing in the music CD information database any of track information, title, and artist from the CD that is not already stored in the music CD database;

prompting a user to scan cover art of the music CD and storing cover art thus scanned into the music CD information database, if the cover art is not already present in the music CD database;

prompting a user to scan lyrics of the music CD and storing lyrics thus scanned into the music CD information database, if the lyrics are not already present in the music CD database;

or

prompting a user to scan liner notes of the music CD and storing liner notes thus scanned into the music CD information database, if the liner notes are not already present in the music CD database.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the data product is a music CD, the data product information database is a music CD information database, and the method further comprises:

analyzing, by means of the programmed electronic processor, music data recorded on tracks of the music CD to generate unique track identification data therefor; and

storing the generated track identification information in the music CD information database.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising enabling the buyer independently to quantitatively evaluate the integrity of the data set recorded on a re-sold data product and to compute the data integrity rating for the re-sold data product, thereby enabling the buyer to verify the data integrity rating of the re-sold data product and compare it to re-seller-reported data integrity rating.