Assured archival and retrieval system for digital intellectual property

• US 7,856,414 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2002
• Issued: 12/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Christopher Zee
• Original Assignee: Christopher Zee
• Inventors: Zee, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu; Kuen S
• Application Number:
  US10/102,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20030065642A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,196 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management

Abstract

A system and method of use for permanently archiving intellectual properties (IP) in a digital archival system. An owner contributes each IP with an initial financial contribution including a discrete archival endowment which is sufficient to fund archival of the IP for an assured archival period. A plurality of discrete archival endowments can be pooled into one or more archival endowment funds, jointly managed for the maintenance of each archived IP. The endowment funds can be managed by a trustee separate from the management of the digital archive. Retrieval can be funded through retrieval fees or an endowment maintained separate from the archival endowment fund. Digital rights management can remunerate owners and revenue tracking can capitalize the value of each IP. Access to the archive system is preferably through a variety of membership options including owners, users, and partners.

Claims

1. A method for archiving IP comprising the steps of:

establishing a digital archive system capable of receiving and storing IP contributed by an IP-Owner, comprising at least;

a network, a server connected to the network, a database system, a content management system, a mirror server, an onsite backup system, an offsite backup system, a disaster recovery system, and

one or more redundancy sub-systems each comprising at least a server connected to the network, a database system, a content management system and an onsite backup system;

receiving the IP contributed by the IP-Owner;

assessing specific characteristics of the IP;

determining the cost of archival for the received IP associated with each of a multiple available combinations of archival periods and archival redundancy levels;

presenting via the network to IP-Owner the cost of archival for the received IP associated with each of multiple available combinations of archival periods and archival redundancy levels;

accepting via the network the combination of archival period and level of archival redundancy selected by the IP-Owner;

receiving an initial financial contribution on behalf of the IP-Owner, at least a portion of which forms a discrete archival endowment having a minimum quantum sufficient to maintain the IP in the digital archive system for the selected archival period and level of archival redundancy without the need for further financial contributions;

archiving the IP within the digital archive system and the redundancy sub-system at the selected level of archival redundancy; and

applying the discrete archival endowment to maintain the IP in the digital archive system for the archival period and the level of archival redundancy, consisting at least the steps of;

establishing a specific endowment account for the specific IP;

investing the principal amount of the specific endowment account for the specific IP;

assessing the current and future periodic (monthly, quarterly or yearly) cost of maintaining the specific IP in the archiving system;

disbursing periodically to the operational segment of the archiving system the periodic operating cost for the specific IP, from the investment returns of the endowment account;

recording, updating and maintaining a database of disbursement records for archived IPs;

linking the disbursement record for the specific IP to the specific IP stored in the archive system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the minimum quantum of the discrete archival endowment is determined using actuarial calculations.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the minimum quantum of the discrete archival endowment is determined comprising the steps of:

determining the initial capital cost for archival of each IP;

determining a series of per unit periodic operating costs including operational contingency, for the archival of each IP as a function of archival characteristics of the IP, including the level of archival redundancy; and

determining the value of the discrete archival endowment which produces a funding stream equal to or greater than the initial capital cost plus the series of per unit periodic operating costs.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein a plurality of IP are contributed by a one or more IP-owners, further comprising the steps of:

aggregating each of the discrete archival endowments for each of the plurality of IP into a pooled archival endowment fund;

managing the pooled archival endowment fund; and

applying the managed, pooled archival endowment fund to maintain each of the plurality of IP in the digital archive system without the need for further financial contributions.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of both time and version locking the IP so that it remains invariant once archived.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of establishing a trustee for the management of the archival endowment fund.

7. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of applying insurance coverage to backstop the health of the archival endowment fund.

8. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

managing the operations and maintenance of the digital archive system; and

managing the archival endowment fund with a trustee, said trustee having a mandate for managing the archival endowment fund which is separate from the managing of the digital archive system.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of:

monitoring at least a discrete archival endowment for an IP and establishing financial indices representing its status; and

displaying the status of the financial indices to those managing the digital archive system.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of:

monitoring at least characteristics indicative of the integrity of the IP archived in the digital archive system and establishing technical indices representing its status; and

displaying the status of the technical indices to those managing the digital archive system.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of:

monitoring at least a discrete archival endowment for an IP and establishing financial indices representing its status;

monitoring at least characteristics indicative of the integrity of the IP archived in the digital archive system and establishing technical indices representing its status; and

displaying the status of the financial and technical indices to those managing the digital archive system.

12. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of receiving donations for funding the support of the digital archiving system.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of managing the donations with a trustee, said trustee having a mandate for managing the donations which is separate from management of the digital archive system.

14. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of accepting donations for funding management of the archival endowment fund.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of establishing a trustee for the management of donations.

16. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

accepting donations for sponsoring contribution and archival of the IP;

aggregating the donation with the archival endowment fund; and

downwardly adjusting the quantum of each financial contribution for IP subsequently contributed to the digital archive system.

17. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing classifications of IP contributed to the digital archive system;

accepting donations for sponsoring the digital archival of a specific classification of IP;

aggregating the donation with the archival endowment fund;

determining if an IP being contributed qualifies as being within a sponsored classification; and

downwardly adjusting the quantum of each financial contribution for IP which qualifies as being within the sponsored classification.

18. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of receiving a discrete retrieval endowment having a minimum quantum of which is sufficient to maintain a finite retrieval rate of each IP from the digital archive system without the need for further financial contributions.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the minimum quantum of the discrete retrieval endowment is determined using actuarial calculations.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the minimum quantum of the discrete retrieval endowment is determined comprising the steps of:

determining a series of per unit periodic operating retrieval costs for retrieval of each IP as a function of specific characteristics of the IP and a finite retrieval rate; and

determining the value of the discrete retrieval endowment which produces a funding stream equal to or greater than the series of per unit operating retrieval costs.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising the step of receiving the discrete retrieval endowment as a portion of the initial financial contribution received when the IP is contributed.

22. The method of claim 18 further comprising the steps of:

aggregating each of the discrete retrieval endowments for each of a plurality of IP into a pooled retrieval endowment fund, and

managing the pooled retrieval endowment fund; and

applying the pooled retrieval endowment fund so as to fund retrieval of each of a plurality of IP from the digital archive system without the need for further financial contributions.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising the steps of establishing a trustee for the management of the retrieval endowment.

24. The method of claim 22 further comprising the step of applying insurance coverage to backstop the health of the pooled retrieval endowment fund.

25. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

receiving a financial contribution on behalf of the IP-Owner which is directed into a technology sinking fund; and

periodically applying the technology sinking fund to improve the digital archive system.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the quantum of the financial contribution for the technology sinking fund is determined using actuarial calculations.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the quantum of the financial contribution for the technology sinking fund is determined comprising the steps of:

determining a series of per unit periodic sinking fund costs for the plurality of IP contributed to the digital archive system; and

determining a value for the technology sinking fund which produces a funding stream equal to or greater than the series of per unit periodic sinking fund costs.

28. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

integrating the digital archive system with a distributed communications network; and

enabling access to the IP, by one or more IP-Users, through the network.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising the steps of:

assigning at least one permanent address for the digital archive system on the network; and

enabling access to the IP, by one or more IP-Users, through the at least one permanent address.

30. The method of claim 28 further comprising the steps of:

assigning one or more unique codes for each IP, at least one of which being a unique permanent address within the digital archive system; and

enabling access to the IP, by one or more IP-Members, at the at least one such code.

31. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from an IP-Member for assignment of a unique name for identification of an IP-Member; and

managing the unique names and IP-Members including vetting the suitability of the unique name for the IP-Member.

32. The method of claim 31 further comprising the steps of:

auctioning the requested unique name amongst the IP-Members;

receiving auction proceeds from a successful IP-Member; and

applying the auction proceeds for the maintenance of the digital archive system.

33. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members; and

enabling access to the IP by the IP-Members.

34. The method of claim 33 further comprising the step of verifying the identity of the IP-Member before enabling their access to the IP.

35. The method of claim 33 further comprising the step of accepting payment of one or more fees from the IP-Member to establish their membership in the community.

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising the step of licensing the IP-Member to use identifying marks of the digital archive system.

37. The method of claim 33 further comprising providing an application program to the IP-Member upon establishing their membership in the community for enabling access to the IP.

38. The method of claim 37 further comprising the steps of:

providing an application program for use by the IP-Owner to prepare the IP for contribution to the digital archive system;

establishing the IP-Owner'"'"'s identity and ownership and accepting payment of the discrete archival endowment;

contributing a digital form of the IP for archival in the digital archival system and any informational tags associated therewith; and

formatting the IP as necessary for acceptance by the digital archival system.

39. The method of claim 38 further comprising the step of receiving information from the IP-Owner which identifies and describes the IP for subsequent searching and retrieval by other IP-Members.

40. The method of claim 37 further comprising the step of registering the IP-Owner as an authorized source of IP for subsequent contributions.

41. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of receiving of each IP further comprises the step of establishing the ownership of the IP by receiving a declaration from the IP-Owner regarding their identity and their claim of ownership to the IP.

42. The method of claim 41 further comprising the step of receiving an affidavit sworn by the IP-Owner for further asserting their claim as IP-Owner.

43. The method of claim 41 further comprising the step of establishing the Identity of the IP-Owner though an exchange of information, the form of which is stipulated by the community.

44. The method of claim 4 further comprising an ownership transfer system for transferring the ownership of IP between a selling IP-Owner and a buying IP-Member, comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members and enabling access to the IP by the IP-Members;

un-assigning the selling IP-Owner'"'"'s ownership of the IP; and

assigning the buying IP-Member as the IP-Owner.

45. The method of claim 44 further comprising the steps of:

applying an escrow service to confirm receipt of satisfactory consideration by the selling IP-Owner; and

only then

assigning the buying IP-Member as the IP-Owner.

46. The method of claim 45 further comprising the steps of:

establishing an escrow amount associated with the IP into which consideration for the transfer is deposited on behalf of the buying IP-Member; and

releasing the consideration to the selling IP-Owner once the transfer is approved.

47. The method of claim 46 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a remittance threshold for the escrow account, the threshold being associated with value in the account and an elapsed administrative period;

accumulating revenue from the IP into the escrow account; and

remitting a lump sum value from the escrow account to the IP-Owner which exceeds the threshold value or which exceeds the elapsed administrative period.

48. The method of claim 44 wherein prior to assigning ownership of the IP to the buying IP-Member, further comprising the step of receiving both a request by the buying IP-Member for title insurance and a payment corresponding thereto.

49. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members;

enabling access to the IP by the IP-Members;

indexing the IP in the digital archive using information tags;

cross-referencing related IP; and

searching the indexed IP.

50. The method of claim 49 further comprising the steps of searching the indexed IP using third party search engines.

51. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members and enabling access to the IP by the IP-Members; and

establishing a rights transfer system for an IP-Owner as an IP-Member to transfer some or all of rights associated with their IP to the community of IP-Members for publication and distribution of the IP to the IP-members.

52. The method of claim 51 wherein the IP-Owner specifies one or more particular IP-Users who can retrieve the IP-Owner'"'"'s IP.

53. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members and enabling access to the IP by the IP-Members;

establishing a member account with the digital archive system;

receiving a deposit from the IP-Member for deposit to the member account; and

recovering at least a retrieval fee from the member account.

54. The method of claim 53 further comprising the steps of:

establishing an IP-Points account with the digital archive system;

receiving a financial contribution from the IP-User;

determining an equivalent value of IP-Points corresponding to the financial contribution

depositing the IP-Points to the IP-Points account; and

recovering the retrieval fee from the IP-Points account.

55. The method of claim 54 further comprising the step of depositing IP-Points to IP-Users IP-Point accounts for predetermined use of the digital archive system.

56. The method of claim 54 further comprising the steps of:

identifying third party customer loyalty program for partnership with the community, the third party customer loyalty program having loyalty points;

defining a relative value between the loyalty points and the IP-Points;

providing a mechanism for the issue, exchange and redemption of IP-Points; and

establishing a value for an exchange of IP-Points with the loyalty points of the third party customer loyalty program.

57. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

providing access to the digital archive system by a community of IP-members which includes at least IP-Owners and IP-Users, and through an electronic communications network;

maintaining a unique user identifier and a unique user password combination for each IP-Member; and

enabling access to the digital archive for the IP-Members.

58. The method of claim 57 further comprising the step of:

creating an access file for an IP-Member which contains information associated with a specific IP archived in the digital archive system; and

accepting information provided by the IP-Member which relates to the IP-Member'"'"'s particular interest in the IP.

59. The method of claim 58 wherein the access file information associated with a specific IP comprises IP-Member annotations, excerpts, or attachments.

60. The method of claim 58 further comprising the step of storing the access file locally with the IP-Member to facilitate access to the IP archived with the digital archive system over the communications network.

61. The method of claim 58 further comprising the steps of:

managing a plurality of access files associated with a plurality of IP including searching for a specific IP or for the information associated with a specific IP.

62. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing one or more categories of IP;

establishing the value of a subscription fee for retrieval of each category of IP;

receiving an election from the IP-Owner regarding which category of IP to associate their IP and authorizing access to their IP on a subscription basis in return for a pro-rata share of net revenues from the subscription fees;

receiving a subscription fee from an IP-User of the archival system for enabling access to the one or more categories of IP; and

allocating the net revenue from the subscription fees to the IP'"'"'s IP-Owner based on predefined formula.

63. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members, which includes at least IP-Owners and IP-Users;

receiving a membership fee from IP-Members; and

recovering a retrieval fee from an IP-User for accessing IP associated with an IP-Owner.

64. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing one or more redundancy archival category-sub-systems for categories of IP such as type, format, subject area and sponsorship; and

maintaining copies of the selected IP on the one or more such redundancy archival category-sub-systems.

65. The method of claim 64 further comprising the step of allocating a portion of the archival endowment fund for maintaining the copies of the IP in the one or more redundant archive systems for the archival period.

66. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

assigning access rights to IP archived with the digital archive system; and

designating a specific IP as being private for access only by those specifically authorized by the IP-Owner.

67. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

enabling access to IP by the one or more IP-Members;

receiving derivative IP contributed by an IP-Member, the contributed derivative IP being related to the IP, the IP-Member becoming an IP-Owner of the derivative IP, the derivative IP itself becoming IP contributed by the IP-Owner; and

performing the steps of assessing the specific characteristics of the IP being contributed by the IP-Owner, receiving an initial financial contribution from the IP-Owner which includes a discrete archival endowment, and archiving the IP with the digital archive system.

68. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members and enabling access to the IP by the IP-Members including IP-Owners;

establishing content guidelines for contributions of IP made by an IP-Owner;

assessing one or more consequences upon the IP-Owner for breach of the guidelines; and

revoking an IP-Owners membership to the community and to the digital archive system for breach of the guidelines.

69. The method of claim 68 further comprising the step of polling the community for establishing the guidelines.

70. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members of at least IP-Owners and IP-Users; and

recovering a retrieval fee from an IP-User for accessing IP associated with an IP-Owner; and

distributing at least a portion of the retrieval fee to the IP'"'"'s IP-Owner.

71. The method of claim 70 further comprising an integrated digital rights management (DRM) system comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from an IP-Member for access to IP at a preferred access level;

receiving the payment from the IP-Member, the amount of the payment commensurate with the preferred access level for the requested IP;

enabling access by the IP-Member to the requested IP; and

compensating the IP-Owner of the IP for each payment received.

72. The method of claim 4 further comprising a localized IP access system comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members; and

providing a custodial application (CSW) for operation on a single IP-Member'"'"'s computer, the CSW being operational on the computer for

creating secure storage which can only be interfaced with the CSW,

retrieving a requested IP from the digital archival system and storing an IP copy locally in the secure storage via CSW, and

providing the IP-Member access to the IP copy via CSW according to the IP-Member'"'"'s preferred access level previously established with the digital archival system.

73. The method of claim 72 further comprising a system for transferring rights to an IP copy in a localized IP access system from a sending IP- Member to a receiving IP-Member comprising the steps of:

establishing operation of the CSW on a sing le computer of each of the sending and receiving IP-Members;

transmitting an unique user identifier of the receiving IP-Member to the sending IP-Member'"'"'s;

encrypting the IP copy via the sending IP-Member'"'"'s CSW and using the receiving IP-Member'"'"'s unique user identifier transmitted so as to be decrypted only by the receiver IP-Member'"'"'s CSW;

transmitting the encrypted IP copy to the receiving IP-Member;

deleting the IP copy at the sending IP-Member'"'"'s computer;

decrypting the IP copy via the receiving IP-Member'"'"'s CSW using the receiving IP-Member'"'"'s identifier, and

re-encrypting the IP for secure storage at the receiving IP-Member'"'"'s system for subsequent authorized retrieval.

74. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members and enabling access to the IP by the IP-Members wherein a plurality of IP-Members who are IP-Owners are marketing their IP; and

providing a co-marketing arrangement between the marketing IP-Owners and the community to establish marketing consistency for the plurality of marketed IP.

75. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of monitoring the marketing of the IP by the community to ensure compliance with community guidelines.

76. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing management which maintains the digital archive system, the management then;

inspecting an affiliate management having a redundant archival system for a capability and a capacity for maintaining IP in the redundant digital archive system; and

advising and supervising the affiliate management for its capability and capacity for maintaining IP for the archival period without the need for further financial contributions.

77. The method of claim 76 further comprising the steps of organizing specific affiliate management and redundant archival systems for the archiving of IP of diverse content.

78. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members; and

assigning agents of the community for the operation of the digital archive system.

79. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members and enabling access to the IP by the IP-Members;

including a distributor as a partner to the community;

authorizing the distributor to distribute at least some of the IP under license to the IP-Users; and

receiving a revenue stream from the distribution of the IP;

80. The method of claim 79 wherein the distributor IP-Member is a publisher, an IP-exhibitor or a broadcaster, the broadcaster being selected from the media group consisting of radio, television and the internet.

81. The method of claim 79 further comprising the steps of:

creating a digital envelope containing the IP;

delivering the digital envelope to a specified distributor IP-Member, said digital envelope and specified IP therein being restricted for access only by the distributor; and

monitoring each access to the IP in the digital envelope as representative of at least a revenue associated therewith.

82. The method of claim 79 further comprising the step of accepting at least a security deposit from a distributor IP-Member for the use of the specified IP.

83. The method of claim 79 further comprising the step of establishing a database of characteristics of the distributor'"'"'s access to the IP in the digital envelope and of a receiving audience.

84. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing management which maintains the digital archive system;

establishing a community of IP-Members and enabling access to the IP by the IP-Members;

accepting a partner to the community, said partner contributing IP for which copyright rights have expired and which are accessible by IP-Members; and

receiving an initial financial contribution from the partner for each IP contributed by the partner, the quantum of said initial financial contribution being at least equal to the discrete archival endowment for the IP.

85. The method of claim 84 further comprising the step of determining a retrieval fee for access by IP-Members to the IP, at least a portion of which is distributed to the partner.

86. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members;

enabling access for the IP-Members to the IP and recovering a retrieval fee for each retrieval of a specific IP; and

determining a revenue stream from the retrieval fees associated with a specified IP for calculating a capitalized value of the specific IP.

87. The method of claim 86 further comprising the step of conducting a sale and purchase transaction of the IP between IP-Members based upon the capitalized value wherein the revenue stream is a historical revenue stream.

88. The method of claim 87 further comprising the step of collecting a commission for the transaction.

89. The method of claim 86 further comprising the step of conducting a sale and purchase transaction of the IP between IP-Members based upon the capitalized value wherein the revenue stream is a forecast revenue stream.

90. The method of claim 89 further comprising the step of collecting a commission for the transaction.

91. The method of claim 86 further comprising the step of aggregating IP having capitalized values and having related characteristics into a pool available for sale and purchase transactions.

92. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members and enabling access for the IP-Members to the IP;

recovering a retrieval fee for each retrieval of a specific IP and generating a revenue profile therefore; and

analyzing the revenue profile for identifying specific IP for use in a venture capital or investment funding vehicle.

93. The method of claim 4 wherein the archival period is between zero years and perpetuity.

94. The method of claim 93 further comprising the step of associating a unique code to IP which have an archival period being a finite period less than perpetuity.

95. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a community of IP-Members of at least IP-Owners and IP-Users;

recovering a retrieval fee from an IP-User for a paid access right for accessing a specific IP associated with an IP-Owner at a specific level of access;

registering information regarding the paid access right of the IP-User who has paid the retrieval fee to access the specific IP at a specific level of access;

enabling the paid IP-User to access, at a specific level of access, the specific IP archived in the community;

enabling access by that specific IP-User to that specific IP at that specific access level for an access fee which may be zero;

providing redundancy backup of the IP-User registration information and the accessed IP to facilitate and assure future access by the IP-User;

receiving at least a portion of the retrieval fee as an access fee from the IP-User; and

distributing the access fee to the IP'"'"'s IP-Owner.

96. The method of claim 95 further comprising an integrated digital rights management (DRM) system for the transfer of a paid access right to a specific archived IP from one IP-User to another IP-User, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from an IP-User as a selling IP-Owner to transfer to another IP-User the paid access right to a specific IP and the price for the transfer, which may be zero;

receiving a payment, if any, from an buying IP-User, for the paid access right to a specific IP to be transferred from the selling IP-User;

receiving a payment of a transfer payment from the buying IP-User or the selling IP-User, or both; and

disbursing the net proceed of the transfer payment to the selling IP-User.

97. The method of claim 96 further comprising an ownership transfer system for transferring the ownership of the access right to a specific IP between a selling IP-User and a buying IP-User, comprising the steps of:

registering the access right acquired by the buying IP-User;

de-registering the access right of the selling IP-User;

issuing instructions to DRM software of the DRM system of the selling IP-User to update the list of specific IP by deleting the sold access right and deleting any local copy of the specific IP previously made available to the selling IP-User;

issuing instructions to the DRM software used by the buying IP-User to update the list of specific IP by adding the bought access right

issuing confirmation notices to both the selling IP-User and the buying IP-User; and

indexing and archiving information related to the ownership transfer.

98. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of

establishing management which maintains the digital archive system;

establishing a community of IP-Members and enabling access to the IP by the IP-Users;

accepting a research, library, archive or professional association partner to the community, such partner referring or contributing individual researchers or members, or groups of researchers or members, associated with the partner as IP-Users of the community;

recovering a retrieval fee from an IP-User for accessing, at a specific level of access, a specific IP associated with an IP-Owner;

receiving at least a portion of the retrieval fee as an access fee from the IP-User for facilitating the access;

distributing at least a portion of the access fee to the IP'"'"'s IP-Owner;

distributing as least a portion of the access fee to the referring or contributing partner; and

collecting, analyzing and storing with redundancy backups the usage and financial information for operational management and for distribution of the IP.

99. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of

establishing management which maintains the digital archive system;

establishing a community of IP-Members and enabling access to the IP by the IP-Users;

accepting an educational or institutional partner to the community, such partner contributing individual learners or groups of learners associated with it as IP-Users of the community;

receiving financial contribution from such partner to be applied towards the retrieval fees for access of specific IP by the partner'"'"'s learners;

receiving specifications from such partner the subjects, access levels, time periods and similar criteria for such prepaid access;

managing such prepaid access by such learners;

collecting, analyzing and storing with redundancy backups the usage and financial information for operational management and for distribution of the IP; and

issuing usage and financial reports to the partner.

100. The method of claim 1 further comprising a method for enhancing use of an under-utilized facility comprising:

storing and managing information relating to IP having information associated therewith, the IP being archived in the digital archive system, the information including IP-Owners and terms of use of the IP including royalties;

storing and managing information relating to the availability of the facility;

contacting individuals targeted by a stakeholder in the use of the facility, the individuals forming an audience for viewing the IP system;

storing information relating to stakeholders and individuals of an audience; and

arranging exhibition of the IP at the facility at specific times and terms; and

collecting revenue and distributing revenue to at least the stakeholder and the IP-Owner.

101. A system for archiving digital versions of IP comprising:

a network;

at least one archival computer system connected to the network for archiving one or more IP, each IP being associated with an archival period and an archival cost;

at least one archival redundancy computer sub-system connected to the network for archiving one or more IP, each IP being associated with an archival period and an archival cost;

an application program for receiving IP through the network and at the archival computer, each IP being contributed by or on behalf of a IP-Owner connected to the network, the application program further assessing the archival cost associated with archiving the IP for combinations of the archival period and level of redundancy, and still further for determining a minimum quantum of a discrete archival endowment sufficient to satisfy the archival costs and thus maintain the IP in the digital archive system for the archival period and level of redundancy without the need for further financial contribution;

commerce means for receiving an initial financial contribution from or on behalf of the IP-Owner so that upon receiving the initial financial contribution which is at least the minimum quantum of the discrete endowment, the application program archives the IP on the digital archive system and maintains the archived IP in the digital archive system for the archival period;

an application program for assigning specific endowment account to specific archived IP;

investing the principal amount of the specific endowment account;

assessing the current and future periodic operating cost of archiving the IP;

periodically disbursing from the investment returns of the endowment account to the operational segment of the archiving system, the periodic operating cost for the specific IP;

recording, updating and maintaining a database of records of such disbursements; and

linking such disbursement records to the specific archived IP in the archival system.

102. The system of claim 101 wherein the application program further comprises actuarial calculation means for determining the minimum quantum of the discrete archival endowment.

103. The system of claim 102 further comprising a pooled archival endowment fund which aggregates the discrete archival endowments from the commerce means and funds each of the archival costs associated with each of the archived IP in the digital archive system for each of their respective archival period and level of redundancy.

104. The system of claim 103 further comprising:

an operating entity which maintains the digital archive system and maintains each archived IP for its archival period and level of redundancy, upon one or more payments which satisfy the archival costs; and

a separate trustee having a mandate separate from that of the operating entity and which manages the discrete archival endowments for each IP and then remunerates the operating entity for each of the archival costs associated with each of the archived IP in the digital archive system for each of their respective archival periods and level of redundancy.

105. The system of claim 104 further comprising a technology sinking fund for receiving a portion of the initial financial contribution from the contributing IP-Owner which is in excess of the discrete archival endowment and which is periodically disbursed to the operating entity for improving the digital archive system.

106. The system of claim 101 further comprising a facility utility enhancement system for presentation and viewing of IP at an under-utilized facility comprising:

a rights management system for storing and managing information relating to IP having information associated therewith including IP-Owners and terms of use of the IP including royalties;

a facility availability database system for storing and managing information relating to the availability of the facility;

an audience contacting system for enabling a stakeholder to contact individuals targeted by the stakeholder as the audience for viewing the IP;

a booking system enabling the stakeholder to arrange exhibition of the IP at the facility at specific times and terms;

an information database for, storing information relating to stakeholders and individuals of an audience; and

a revenue determination, collection, accounting and royalty distribution system.

107. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 106 further comprising means to inspect and audit facilities for operations and accounting records.

108. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 107 further comprising a communications network for interfacing the facility availability system, the rights management system, the booking system, the audience acquisition system and the revenue system.

109. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 108 wherein the presentation facility is an auditorium, theatre, meeting room, classroom, gymnasium or stadium.

110. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 109 wherein the intellectual properties are audio-visual media.

111. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 110 wherein the audio-visual media are selected from the group consisting of movies, documentary films, educational films or promotional films, and broadcasts of live and recorded events.

112. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 111 wherein the stakeholder is one of the owner of the facility, the representative of the owner, the manager of the facility, a person or persons having nexus with the audience;

or a combination thereof.

113. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 106 further comprising:

a computer servers having input and output interfaces, mirror servers, backup and disaster recovery systems;

a communication network; and

computer software for database management, data encryption, payment receipt and accounting, revenue disbursement and IP rights management.

114. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 113 wherein the revenue determination, collection, accounting and royalty distribution system further comprises kiosks or handheld devices for processing and validating entry tickets.

115. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 113 further comprising means for real-time or periodic collection of audience and revenue information.

116. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 113 further comprising:

means to generate supplementary information in the same format as the IP; and

means to add the supplementary information to the IP at a desired location therein.

117. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 113 further comprising means for the IP-Owner to submit the IP to a digital archive system for assured archival of the IP on a permanent or predetermined archival period and level of redundancy.

118. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 113 further comprising means for the IP-Owners to submit the IP, or a copy thereof, to a publishing and marketing system.

119. The facility utility enhancement system of claim 118 further comprising means for returning the IP to the IP-Owner.

120. A method for archiving IP comprising the steps of:

establishing an archive system capable of receiving and storing IP contributed by an IP-Owner;

receiving the IP contributed by the IP-Owner;

assessing specific characteristics of the IP;

receiving an initial financial contribution on behalf of the IP-Owner, at least a portion of which forms a discrete archival endowment having a minimum quantum sufficient to maintain the IP in the archive system for an archival period and level of redundancy without the need for further financial contributions;

archiving the IP with the archive system;

aggregating each of the discrete endowments for each of a plurality of IP into a pooled archival endowment fund;

managing the pooled archival endowment fund; and

applying the pooled archival endowment fund to maintain each of the plurality of IP in the archive system without the need for further financial contributions.

121. The method of claim 120 further comprising the steps of:

managing the operations and maintenance of the archive system; and

managing the archival endowment fund with a trustee, said trustee having a mandate for managing the archival endowment fund which is separate from the managing of the archive system.

122. The method of claim 121 comprising the steps of:

enabling access to the IP; and

recovering a fee for each access to each IP.

123. A method for archiving tangible representation of IP comprising the steps of:

establishing an archive system capable of receiving and storing a tangible representation of IP contributed by an owner;

receiving the a tangible representation of IP contributed by the owner;

assessing specific characteristics of the a tangible representation of IP;

receiving an initial financial contribution on behalf of the owner, at least a portion of which forms a discrete archival endowment having a minimum quantum sufficient to maintain the a tangible representation of IP in the archive system for an archival period without the need for further financial contributions;

archiving the tangible representation of IP with the archive system;

aggregating each of the discrete endowments for each of a plurality of tangible representation of IP into a pooled archival endowment fund;

managing the pooled archival endowment fund;

applying the pooled archival endowment fund to maintain each of the plurality of tangible representation of IP in the archive system without the need for further financial contributions;

applying the discrete archival endowment to maintain the tangible representation of IP in the archive system for the archival period, consisting at least the steps of;

establishing a specific endowment account for the specific tangible representation of IP;

investing the principal amount of the specific endowment account for the specific tangible representation of IP;

assessing the current and future periodic (monthly, quarterly or yearly) cost of maintaining the specific tangible representation of IP in the archiving system;

disbursing periodically to the operational segment of the archiving system the periodic operating cost for the specific tangible representation of IP, from the investment returns of the endowment account;

recording, updating and maintaining a database of disbursement records for archived tangible representation of IPs;

linking the disbursement record for the specific tangible representation of IP to the specific tangible representation of IP stored in the archive system.

124. The method of claim 123 further comprising the steps of:

managing the operations and maintenance of the archive system; and

managing the archival endowment fund with a trustee, said trustee having a mandate for managing the archival endowment fund which is separate from the managing of the archive system.

125. The method of claim 124 comprising the steps of:

enabling access to the tangible representation of IP; and

recovering a fee for each access to each tangible representation of IP.