Content insurance

• US 7,389,247 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2001
• Issued: 06/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pestoni, Florian, Naor, Dalit
• Primary Examiner(s): Morgan; Robert W
• Application Number:
  US09/759,163
• Publication Number:
  US 20020095384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,709 Days
• Field of Search: 705/4, 705/50, 705/51, 705/59
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

The present invention provides for the protection of and ability to upgrade to new formats of digital content by providing consumers of the digital content the capability of purchasing content insurance on digital content they consume. By purchasing insurance on content, at a later time consumers are able to return to the content distribution channels and re-obtain the previously purchased content in the same, or new format as the original purchased.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable code embodied thereon which provides a method of insuring purchased distributed digital content for a consumer of said purchased digital content, said medium comprising:

(a) computer readable program code receiving an indication a consumer has purchased content insurance on specified purchased digital content distributed via communication networks, said content insurance insuring said consumer against loss of said specified purchased digital content;

(b) computer readable program code maintaining information identifying said consumer and indicating said consumer has purchased content insurance on said specified purchased digital content;

(c) computer readable program code receiving a claim to recover lost digital content from said consumer;

(d) computer readable program code verifying said lost digital content is the same as said specified purchased digital content for which said content insurance was also purchased;

(e) computer readable program code transmitting a new copy of originally purchased digital content in (a) to said consumer via said communication networks.

2. The article of manufacture of claim 1, wherein said new copy of originally purchased digital content is in the same format as said lost digital content.

3. The article of manufacture of claim 1, wherein said content insurance further allows said consumer to upgrade said specified purchased digital content to a new encoding format.

4. The article of manufacture of claim 3, said medium further comprising:

computer readable program code receiving an indication said consumer has made a claim to upgrade digital content to a new format;

computer readable program code verifying said digital content to be upgraded is the same as originally purchased digital content in (a) for which said content insurance was also purchased;

computer readable program code transmitting said originally purchased digital content of (a) in a new encoding format via said communication networks.

5. The article of manufacture of claim 4, said medium further comprising:

computer readable program code charging said consumer an amount for said originally purchased digital content of (a) in a new encoded format which is a fraction of the price for a new purchase of said specified purchased digital content in said new encoding format.

6. The article of manufacture of claim 5, wherein terms and conditions of associated with said content insurance includes any of:

a limited number of format upgrades or a limited time for which upgrades are available with the option of renewal.

7. The article of manufacture of claim 1, wherein said content insurance was purchased at a cost which is a fraction of the price of said specified purchased digital content.

8. The article of manufacture of claim 1, wherein terms and conditions associated with said content insurance includes any of:

restrictions on the number of claims that can be filed, payment of a deductible for a claim, requiring disclosure of private information by said consumer when making a claim, or having a limited term with the option of renewal.