Subscription management in a media sharing service

• US 7,792,756 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2006
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Haveson, Ryan Alexander, Jones, David, Plastina, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Augustin; Evens J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cheung; Calvin K
• Application Number:
  US11/549,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20070299681A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,425 Days
• Field of Search: 705 51- 53, 705/59, 705/61, 713160-181, 726 26- 33, 380/201, 380231-233, 380259-262, 380/277, 709223-237
• US Class Current: 705/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 Secure pairing of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/64 using geofenced areas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

Providing subscription management in local communication regions. Upon detecting a computing device of a user within a predefined proximity, a media server provides the user with access to a corresponding user profile maintained by a media service. The user profile includes subscription information defining access by the user to media content items available from the media service. The user creates or renews a subscription to the media service while connected to the media server, and subsequently receives media content items from the media service.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory area associated with a media service, said memory area comprising a computer storage medium, said memory area storing user profiles for a plurality of users and storing media content items each having a digital rights management policy associated therewith, said user profiles including subscription information; and

a processor remote from the memory area, said processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

detecting a computing device of a particular user within a local communication region, said local communication region comprising a media service access zone, said media service access zone comprising a retail location, said computing device being associated with the particular user;

establishing a wireless connection to the detected computing device of the particular user;

enabling the media service to authenticate the particular user based on the user profiles stored in the memory area;

enabling access by the computing device of the particular user, based on the authentication by the media service, to the user profiles stored in the memory area for the particular user to update the subscription information stored in one of the user profiles associated with the particular user, said subscription information including subscription licenses to the media service; and

sending, to a computer storage medium associated with the computing device of the particular user, one or more of the media content items stored in the memory area and the digital rights management policy associated therewith in accordance with the associated digital rights management policy, said associated digital rights management policy indicating whether the particular user has a right to distribute from the computing device of the particular user the one or more provided media content items to one or more other computing devices within the local communication region.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user profiles comprise a plurality of playlists.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to execute computer-executable instructions for updating the plurality of playlists upon connection to the detected computing device of the particular user.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to establish the wireless connection to the computing device of the particular user without input from the user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions further include instructions for enabling, based on the authentication by the media service, access by the computing device of the particular user to one or more third-party resources.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the one or more third-party resources include one or more of the following:

printing to a printer in the local communication region, accessing the Internet, and transmitting media content items to a display device in the local communication region.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the authentication by the media service is based upon payment by the particular user to access the media service.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions further include instructions for providing, to the computing device of the particular user after establishing the wireless connection to the computing device of the particular user, a user interface indicating that the media service is available.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the media content items include one or more of the following content:

audio, video, still images, full- or partial-length songs and movies, video clips or shorts, recorded television, and product commercials.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless connection comprises a wireless universal serial bus (USB) connection.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless connection comprises a Bluetooth connection.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the user profile for the particular user contains subscription information associated therewith for authentication by the media service.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital right management policy associated with a media content item includes an expiration date for the media content item, such that the associated media content item is deleted or otherwise not renderable after said expiration date.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the local communication region comprises a local media server connected to one or more wireless access points via a data communication network.