Service for managing digital content licenses

• US 9,053,482 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2011
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hill, Peter F., Vrignaud, Andre
• Primary Examiner(s): Reagan, James A
• Application Number:
  US13/115,021
• Publication Number:
  US 20120303490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,477 Days
• Field of Search: 705/59
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

A content management system may receive, purchase or otherwise obtain licenses from content owners or licensors and provide such content licenses to application developers or other content creators. The content management system can act as a central broker for licensing content rights to developers. The application developers can then generate content items based on the obtained licenses and provide or sell those content items to users of their applications. For instance, the developer may license an automobile design, brand name or performance data from an automobile manufacturer and create an automobile model for a racing game application.

Claims

1. A method for managing digital content licenses, the method comprising:

by a content management system comprising computing hardware;

storing data representing digital content item licenses from a plurality of content licensors, wherein the digital content item licenses authorize creation of digital content items associated with respective digital content item licenses, said digital content item licenses including a first digital content item license that corresponds to one or more of (a) a particular brand, or (b) a particular character;

providing information regarding a multi-licensor license bundle to a plurality of application developers, said multi-licensor license bundle including the first digital content license and at least one additional digital content item license;

receiving digital content items from an application developer, including at least one digital content item that includes data representing one or more of the particular brand or the particular character, the digital content items configured for use within at least one application;

monitoring compliance of the application developer with the multi-licensor bundle based on the received digital content items; and

providing the digital content items for purchase via an electronic catalog based at least partly on a determination of whether the received digital content items are authorized by the multi-licensor license bundle.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dividing payments received from purchases of the digital content items between at least the application developer and content licensors.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring compliance of the application developer comprises determining whether a total number of digital content items associated with the first digital content item license exceeds a maximum number of content items authorized by the first digital content item license.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

rejecting a digital content item submission to the electronic catalog in response to determining that the total number of digital content items associated with the first digital content item license exceeds the maximum number.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

generating a report indicating that the maximum number of authorized content items has been exceeded in response to determining that the total number of digital content items associated with the first digital content item license exceeds the maximum number.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital content items comprise game characters.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the digital content items includes a representation of said brand.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-licensor license bundle corresponds to a plurality of game characters and provides bundled rights for incorporating the game characters into at least one game application.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a software module for inclusion into applications developed by the plurality of developers, the software module configured to track content items used within the applications and to provide data that allows the content management system to track compliance with license bundles associated with the applications.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising, by the content management system:

receiving data from instances of the software module;

determining, based on the received data, a total number of digital content items associated with a first content license; and

determining whether the total number of digital content items associated with the first content license exceeds a maximum number of content items authorized by the first content license.

11. Non-transitory physical computer storage having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations comprising:

storing data representing digital content item licenses from a plurality of content licensors, wherein the digital content item licenses authorize creation of digital content items associated with respective digital content licenses, said digital content item licenses including a first digital content item license that corresponds to one or more of (a) a particular brand, or (b) a particular character;

storing data representing a multi-licensor bundle of the digital content item licenses, said bundle including the first digital content item license, and comprising digital content item licenses from more than one of the plurality of content licensors;

storing data identifying an application developer as a licensee under the multi-licensor license bundle;

receiving digital content items from the application developer, including at least one digital content item that includes data representing one or more of the particular brand or the particular character, the digital content items configured for use within applications;

monitoring compliance of the application developer with the multi-licensor license bundle based on the received digital content items; and

providing the digital content items for purchase based at least partly on a determination of whether the received digital content items are authorized by the multi-licensor license bundle.

12. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 11, wherein at least one of the digital content items is configured to incorporate the particular character into a game application.

13. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 11, wherein the instructions cause the computing system to:

in response to receiving a purchase payment for a received digital content item access an account associated with the developer and credit at least a portion of the payment to the account.

14. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 13, wherein the instructions cause the computing system to:

in response to receiving the purchase payment;

determine a content licensor associated with the payment; and

credit an account associated with the content licensor with at least a portion of the payment.

15. A system for managing digital content licenses, the system comprising:

a content management system comprising computer hardware, the content management system associated with a plurality of developers and content licensors having user accounts with the content management system, the content management system configured to;

store data representing digital content item licenses from a plurality of content licensors, wherein the digital item content licenses authorize creation of digital content items associated with respective digital content licenses, said digital content item licenses including a first digital content item license that corresponds to one or more of (a) a particular brand, or (b) a particular character;

store data representing a multi-licensor license bundle comprising digital content item licenses from more than one of the plurality of content licensors, said bundle including the first digital content item license;

store data associating a developer with the multi-licensor license bundle;

receive from the developer digital content items authorized by the license bundle, including a digital content item configured to incorporate into an application one or more of the particular brand or the particular character; and

make the authorized digital content items available for electronic purchase.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the content management system is configured to:

in response to receiving a purchase request for the license bundle from the developer, associate the license bundle with an account of the developer; and

monitor a total number of digital content items generated under the license bundle by the developer.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the content management system is configured to:

in response to determining that the total number of digital content items generated under the license bundle exceeds a maximum threshold specified by the license bundle, transmit a content license violation notice to the content licensors associated with the license bundle.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the content management system is configured to:

reject a digital content item submission in response to determining that the total number of digital content items generated under the license bundle exceeds a maximum threshold specified by the license bundle.