Off-line economies for digital media

• US 7,818,811 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2005
• Issued: 10/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jain, Kamal, Kirovski, Darko
• Primary Examiner(s): Henning; Matthew T
• Application Number:
  US11/296,194
• Publication Number:
  US 20070136608A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,778 Days
• Field of Search: 705/52, 705/53, 705/59, 726/26
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/06 Private payment circuits, e.g. involving electronic currency used among participants of a common payment scheme
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/223 based on the use of peer-to-peer networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists

Abstract

An off-line economy for digital media. In one implementation, exemplary media devices of buyer and seller participate in the off-line economy by performing secure off-line transfers of digital media content between themselves. The media devices store proof of the off-line sales transactions, so that a percentage of the sale price can be applied to a copyright owner and a percentage of the sale price can be applied to the seller as an incentive. Even resale of pirated media content benefits the copyright holder. The off-line economy opens an effective and inexpensive distribution channel for copyright holders and allows buyers to obtain media content anywhere, at any time, from any participant in the off-line economy without connecting to the Internet. The off-line economy allows copyright holders and media sellers to optimize pricing by market probing.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

authenticating off-line each other between a first user and a second user;

checking off-line whether the second user has a valid account with a service provider;

negotiating freely off-line a price via an off-line sales transaction for a secure off-line transfer of a digital media content from a first media playback device of the first user to a second media playback device of the second user, wherein the off-line sales transaction comprises;

receiving a cryptographically secure purchase request from the buyer;

verifying the cryptographically secure purchase request using a public key of the buyer;

sending a cryptographically secure transaction receipt to the buyer who verifies the cryptographically secure transaction receipt using a public key of the seller; and

receiving a receipt acknowledgement from the buyer, wherein the receiving completes the sales transaction;

securely storing off-line a proof of the off-line sales transaction between the first user and the second user in both of the first media playback device and the second media playback device, wherein the second user can enjoy the digital media content off-line without limitations and without paying the price right after the off-line sales transaction;

providing a first percentage of the price, by the first user, to an owner of a copyright of the digital media content based on the proof stored in either the first media playback device or the second media playback device; and

receiving a second percentage of the price by the first user based on the stored proof,

wherein the off-line authentication, the off-line checking, the off-line negotiating, and the secure off-line storing comprising a peer-to-peer link involving no communication link to the world outside of the first media playback device and the second media playback device.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the off-line transaction comprises a cryptographically secure sales transaction protocol.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the off-line transaction comprises using a cryptographically secure sales transaction protocol, including:

sending a cryptographically secure purchase request from the second media playback device to the first media playback device;

sending a cryptographically secure transaction receipt from the first media playback device to the second media playback device; and

sending a receipt acknowledgement from the second media playback device to the first media playback device.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the purchase request includes purchase information selected from the group of data consisting of date, time, location, license, and price.

5. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the second media playback device verifies the transaction receipt using a public key of the first media playback device.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein prior to the off-line transaction the first and second media playback devices:

authenticate each other by exchanging certificates;

create a session key;

establish a data encryption and a data compression capability; and

establish a session identifier.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the off-line transaction comprises at least part of a transaction selected from the group of transactions consisting of:

a coupon redemption transaction, a gift certificate transaction, a rewards program transaction, a multi-tier sales transaction, a script transaction, a bartering transaction, a loan payback transaction, a cross-licensing transaction, a sales promotion transaction, a loss-leader transaction, a charitable fundraising transaction, a market-basket transaction, a subscription transaction, an auction transaction, a trade-for-fee transaction, a multi-party transaction, and a multi-item discount transaction.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising reselling the digital media content from the second user to subsequent users, including:

transferring the digital media content from the second media playback device to a subsequent media playback device for a subsequent price via a subsequent off-line transaction;

providing a first percentage of the subsequent price to the owner of the copyright of the digital media content; and

providing a second percentage of the subsequent price to the second user.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein providing the first and second percentages of the price to the owner of the copyright and to the first user, respectively, includes sending a notification of the off-line transaction to a service provider, wherein the service provider debits an amount of the price from an account of the second user, provides the first percentage of the amount to the copyright owner, and provides the second percentage of the amount to the first user.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein either the first media playback device or the second media playback device sends the notification of the off-line transaction to the service provider, wherein regardless of whether the first or second media playback device notifies the service provider, the service provider debits the amount of the price from the account of the second user and provides the first percentage of the amount to the copyright owner and the second percentage of the amount to the first user.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising sending a preview of the digital media content prior to the off-line transaction from the first media playback device to the second media playback device, wherein the preview verifies an identity and a quality of the digital media content.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising sending a preview of the digital media content prior to the off-line transaction from the first media playback device to the second media playback device, wherein the preview presents a sample of the digital media content but does not identify a title or an author associated with the digital media content.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising selling an advertisement of the digital media content to the second user via the off-line transaction, wherein the advertisement is used by the second user to resell the digital media content to subsequent buyers of the digital media content and to resell the advertisement to subsequent buyers of the advertisement.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the digital media content comprises pirated media content;

and further comprising;

applying the advertisement to the pirated media content;

and reselling the pirated media content via subsequent off-line transactions to increase a revenue to the copyright holder.

15. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising establishing:

a first price for a completed download of the digital media content from the first to the second media devices using an amount of bandwidth;

a second price for a transaction receipt giving permission to download the digital media content at some future time; and

wherein the second user sends to the first user an acknowledgment for a completed download of the digital media content, the acknowledgement enabling the first user to claim the first price for the transaction.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising negatively affecting a buyer reputation of the second user if the second user does not obtain the completed download of the digital media content.

17. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising negatively affecting a seller reputation of the first user when the first user transfers an incorrect or a low quality version of the digital media content to the second media playback device.

18. A media player comprising:

a storage medium configured to store digital media content for a seller in the media player;

an off-line communication engine configured to communicate off-line with an other media player used by a buyer;

an off-line media distribution engine configured to negotiate sale prices and securely buying and selling a media content off-line, wherein a first percentage of each sale price is applied to a copyright holder associated with the media content being sold and a second percentage of each sale price is applied to the seller of the media content;

an authenticator configured to provide off-line secure transactions between the media player and the other media player;

an account verifier configured to check off-line whether the buyer has a valid account with a service provider; and

a transaction history storage configured to securely store off-line a proof of an off-line sales transaction between the seller and the buyer in both the media player and the other media player, wherein the buyer can enjoy the digital media content off-line without limitations and without paying the sale price right after the off-line sales transaction, wherein the off-line sales transaction comprises;

receiving a cryptographically secure purchase request from the other media player;

verifying the cryptographically secure purchase request using a public key of the buyer;

sending a cryptographically secure transaction receipt to the other media player which verifies the cryptographically secure transaction receipt using a public key of the seller; and

receiving a receipt acknowledgement from the other media player, wherein the receiving completes the sales transaction,

wherein the off-line communication engine, the off-line media distribution engine, the authenticator, and the account verifier are further configured to interact with the other media player of the buyer via a peer-to-peer link involving no communication link to the world outside of the media player of the seller and the other media player of the buyer.

19. The media player as recited in claim 18, further comprising an authenticator to provide secure communication and secure transactions between the media player and the second media player.

20. The media player as recited in claim 18, wherein the off-line media distribution engine includes a transaction engine:

to perform secure off-line negotiation of prices for media contents to be bought and sold;

to perform secure off-line sending and receiving of purchase requests for media contents;

to perform secure off-line sending and receiving of transaction receipts for media contents bought and sold; and

to perform secure off-line acknowledgement of received receipts;

wherein a buyer possessing a receipt for an off-line purchase of the media content can immediately download the media content from the seller or from a service provider, and a seller possessing an acknowledgment of a receipt received by the buyer can immediately be credited with the second percentage of the sale price.

21. A method, comprising:

authenticating a buyer by a seller using a buyer'"'"'s public key;

facilitating the buyer to authenticate the seller using a seller'"'"'s public key;

checking whether the buyer has a valid account with a service provider;

negotiating freely a price via an off-line sales transaction for securely transferring a digital media content from a seller'"'"'s media player to a buyer'"'"'s media player, wherein the off-line sales transaction comprises;

receiving a cryptographically secure purchase request from the buyer;

verifying the cryptographically secure purchase request using the buyer'"'"'s public key;

sending a cryptographically secure transaction receipt to the buyer who verifies the cryptographically secure transaction receipt using the seller'"'"'s public key; and

receiving a receipt acknowledgement from the buyer, wherein the receiving completes the sales transaction;

securely storing a proof of the off-line sales transaction between the buyer and the seller in both of the seller'"'"'s media player and the buyer'"'"'s media player, wherein the second user can enjoy the digital media content off-line without limitations and without paying the price right after the off-line sales transaction, and the authenticating, the facilitating, the checking, the negotiating, and the securely storing are done off-line without connecting to an internet or a communication link outside a seller and a buyer; and

providing the proof stored in either the seller'"'"'s media player or the buyer'"'"'s media player to the service provider when either the seller or the buyer is online, so that a first percentage of the price is provided to an owner of a copyright of the digital media content, and a second percentage of the price is provided to the seller, wherein what is provided to the seller is always less than the price, and the service provider acts as a clearinghouse for monetary accounts of the seller, the buyer, and the owner of the copyright of the digital media content, and credits or debits each account accordingly.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, further comprising optimizing the price via market probing of multiple of the off-line transactions.