Trial use of a collection of media files

• US 9,311,454 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2005
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Malik, Dale
• Primary Examiner(s): Qayyum, Zeshan
• Application Number:
  US11/229,910
• Publication Number:
  US 20070067301A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,858 Days
• Field of Search: 705/51
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1076 Revocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0185 Product, service or business identity fraud

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods for sharing media files. One embodiment of the system, among others, can be implemented as follows. The system includes a file sharing application configured to initiate a communication session with a file server, where the file server that manages download requests for a collection of media files, where the collection of media files are subject to a trial period. The system further includes media file selection logic configured to prompt a user to select a subset of media files from the collection of media files that was downloaded from the file server after the trial period is detected to have expired. In accordance with this embodiment, the user selects a subset of media files that the user would like to keep for continued use and the remaining media files not selected by the user are then configured to be inaccessible by the user after the trial period has expired. Other systems and methods are also provided.

Claims

1. A system for obtaining media files, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory connected to the processor, the memory storing instructions that when executed cause the processor to perform a method comprising;

initiating a communication session with a file server;

receiving from the file server a collection of media files, the collection of media files subject to a trial period;

prompting a user to select a subset of media files from the collection of media files that was downloaded from the file server after the trial period is detected to have expired;

receiving a selection of the subset of media files from the user;

disabling access to the remaining media files not selected by the user after the trial period has expired, such that the user is unable to access the remaining media files;

prompting the user to exchange a quantity of previously purchased credits to re-enable access to the remaining media files when the trial period has expired, the quantity of previously purchased credits retrieved from storage accessible to the processor; and

modifying a header portion of the remaining media files to re-enable access to the remaining media files when the quantity of previously purchased credits are received, wherein the header portion contains trial access terms for the remaining media files.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the media files include sound files.

3. The system of claim 1, further causing the processor to perform the steps of:

modifying the selected media files to be subject to unlimited use by the user and the remaining media files to be inaccessible by the user.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein prompting the user to select the subset includes prompting the user after the trial period has expired and the user subsequently logs into the file server.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein prompting the user to select the subset includes prompting the user after the trial period has expired and the user plugs in a portable media device into a computer that is used to log into the file server, the portable media device containing the collection of media files.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the trial period is expressed in terms of an amount of usage of the media files in the collection.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the trial period is expressed in terms of an amount of time.

8. The system of claim 1, further causing the processor to perform the steps of:

determining whether the trial period has expired when the user logs into the file server;

determining whether the trial period has expired when the user requests access to a media file from the collection of media files; and

determining whether the trial period has expired when the user plugs a portable media device into a computer that is used to log into the file server, the portable media device containing the collection of media files.

9. A method for obtaining media files, comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a first request to access a collection of media files;

downloading the collection of media files via the computing device in response to the first request, the collection of media files subject to a trial period;

detecting, by the computing device, expiration of the trial period;

prompting a user to select a subset of media files selected from the collection of media files after detection of the expired trial period;

enabling access to the selected subset of media files for continued use by the user;

disabling access to remaining media files not belonging to the selected subset of media files, such that the user is unable to access the remaining media files;

prompting, by the computing device, the user to exchange a quantity of previously purchased credits to re-enable access to the remaining media files, wherein the quantity of previously purchased credits are retrieved from storage of the computing device;

receiving a second request to access one or more of the remaining media files after receiving an exchange of the quantity of previously purchased credits; and

re-enabling access to the one or more of the remaining media files in response to the second request and after receiving the exchange of the quantity of previously purchased credits.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the disabling step deletes the remaining media files.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the disabling step deletes a decryption key for the remaining media files.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the detecting step is triggered by the user logging into the file server after the trial period has expired.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the detecting step is triggered by the user requesting access to a media file from a collection.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

sending payment for access to the file server, wherein in return of payment, the user is entitled to download a collection of media files and access the media files for a trial period, after which the user is entitled to keep a designated number of the media files.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

sending payment to maintain use of a media file from the collection of media files downloaded from the file server after the trial period has expired for the collection of media files.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform following operations:

detecting by a computing device expiration of a trial period for a collection of media files;

prompting by the computing device a user to select a subset of media files from the collection of media files after detection of the expired trial period;

enabling by the computing device the selected media files for continued use by the user;

disabling remaining media files from the collection, such that the user is unable to access the remaining media files; and

prompting the user to exchange a quantity of previously purchased credits to re-enable access to the remaining media files, wherein the quantity of previously purchased credits are retrieved from storage of the computing device.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein the detecting step is triggered by the user logging into the file server after the trial period has expired.

18. The medium of claim 16, wherein the detecting step determines whether the trial period has expired when the user logs into the file server;

determines whether the trial period has expired when the user requests access to a media file from the collection of media files; and

determines whether the trial period has expired when the user plugs a portable media device into a computer that is used to log into the file server, the portable media device containing the collection of media files.