Public-domain analyzer

• US 9,691,068 B1
• Filed: 12/15/2011
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Azari, David, Miller, Lee M., Kovalenko, Maksym, Sanford, Jonathan D., Martinelli, Anthony C, Watson, Kelly, Kipust, Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Cao, Phuong Thao
• Application Number:
  US13/327,140
• Time in Patent Office: 2,021 Days
• Field of Search: 707748, 707736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management

Abstract

Some implementations include searching for and analyzing public-domain-status information about works (such as e-books) over the Internet. A computer system may search for works recently made available online that are categorized as being in the public domain. Associated metadata is analyzed to generate a confidence level regarding whether the works are in the public domain or protected by copyright. Based on the confidence level, decisions can be made, such as whether to make the works available for free in a particular country.

Claims

1. A method under control of one or more computing systems configured with specific executable instructions, the method comprising:

obtaining information about a work from one or more network resources;

deriving metadata of the work from the information obtained about the work;

determining, based at least in part on copyright laws of a country, that a subset of the metadata has a minimum amount of information to make a determination related to the work being in the public domain for the country;

generating, based at least partly on the subset of the metadata, a numerical confidence level indicative of the work being in the public domain for the country or the work being protected by copyright in the country;

comparing the numerical confidence level to a predetermined threshold value for the country;

determining that the numerical confidence level is above the predetermined threshold value;

determining, based at least partly on the numerical confidence level being above the predetermined threshold value, a recommendation to make the work available as a public domain document in the country; and

generating a user interface that includes the numerical confidence level and the recommendation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata about the work includes at least one of:

a title of the work, an author of the work, an owner of the work, a publisher of the work, an illustrator of the work, a translator of the work, a date of birth for a creator of the work, a date of death for the creator of the work, or a publication date of the work.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes a selectable option to perform an action corresponding to the recommendation.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining additional information about an additional work from the one or more network resources;

deriving additional metadata of the additional work from the additional information obtained about the additional work; and

generating, based at least partly on at least a portion of the additional metadata and on the copyright laws of the country, an additional numerical confidence level indicative of the additional work being in the public domain for the country or the additional work being protected by copyright in the country.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

comparing the additional numerical confidence level to the predetermined threshold value for the country;

determining that the additional numerical confidence level is below the predetermined threshold value; and

classifying the additional work as being protected by copyright in the country based at least partly on the additional numerical confidence level being below the predetermined threshold value.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising making the work available for purchase based at least partly on determining that the additional work is protected by copyright in the country.

7. A method under control of one or more computing systems configured with specific executable instructions, the method comprising:

gathering metadata about a work;

determining that the work is in the public domain;

storing at least a portion of the metadata of the work in a repository of works that are in the public domain;

extracting additional metadata of an additional work from a network resource;

determining, based on at least a portion of the additional metadata, that the additional work is not stored in the repository;

generating, based at least in part on the additional metadata, a numerical confidence level indicative of the additional work passing into the public domain or the additional work being protected by copyright in a country;

determining, based at least partly on the numerical confidence level, a recommendation of one of;

making the additional work available as a public domain document, making the additional work available for download in the country, or performing further research related to a public domain status of the additional work in the country; and

causing display of a user-interface element including the numerical confidence level and the recommendation.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising causing display of the numerical confidence level and at least a portion of the additional metadata appurtenant to at least a portion of the additional work in a user-interface element on a computer.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising periodically searching a network resource for the additional metadata of the additional work.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the metadata includes at least one of:

a title of the work, an author of the work, an owner of the work, a publisher of the work, an illustrator of the work, a translator of the work, a date of birth for a creator of the work, a date of death for the creator of the work, or a publication date of the work.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising characterizing the additional work as being in the public domain at least partly based on the numerical confidence level exceeding a threshold.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising characterizing the additional work as being protected by copyright at least partly based on the numerical confidence level being below a threshold value.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising characterizing the additional work as being in the public domain at least partly based on the numerical confidence level exceeding a threshold value, and making the additional work available for download as a digital item in the country.

14. The method of claim 7, further comprising comparing at least a portion of the additional metadata to logic representative of laws in the country.

15. The method of claim 7, further comprising comparing at least a portion of the metadata to the additional metadata.

16. The method of claim 7, further comprising rejecting free dissemination of the additional work in the country at least partly based on the numerical confidence level being below a threshold value indicating that the additional work is protected by copyright in the country.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein the generating the numerical confidence level includes comparing at least a portion of the additional metadata to the metadata corresponding to the work previously determined to be in the public domain, and the numerical confidence level indicates a similarity between the metadata with the at least a portion of the additional metadata.

18. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

non-transitory computer-readable media communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, the non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computer-readable instructions that, upon execution by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform operations comprising;

scanning network resources periodically for information about a work;

deriving a set of metadata about the work from the information;

normalizing the set of metadata to a format that is independent of a language in which the work was created;

searching a repository based on the set of metadata to determine that at least a portion of the set of metadata is included in the repository, the repository including additional metadata associated with additional works in the public domain;

generating, based at least in part on the at least a portion of the set of metadata being included in the repository, a numerical confidence level indicative of the work being in the public domain or the work being protected by copyright in a country of a plurality of countries;

determining that the numerical confidence level is above a predetermined threshold value for the country; and

determining that the work is in the public domain of the country.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

obtaining additional information about an additional work from the network resources;

deriving additional metadata of the additional work from the additional information obtained about the additional work; and

generating, based at least partly on at least a portion of the additional metadata and on copyright laws of the country, an additional numerical confidence level indicative of the additional work being in the public domain for the country or the additional work being protected by copyright in the country.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise:

comparing the additional numerical confidence level to the predetermined threshold value for the country;

determining that the additional numerical confidence level is below the predetermined threshold value; and

characterizing the additional work as requiring additional research to determine that the additional work is protected by copyright in the country or that the additional work is in the public domain.

21. Non-transitory computer-readable media comprising a plurality of programming instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to:

scan network resources periodically for information about a work;

derive a set of metadata about the work from the information;

normalize the set of metadata to a format that is independent of a language in which the work was created;

search a repository based on the set of metadata to determine that the work is not included in the repository, wherein the repository stores works included in the public domain;

analyze the set of metadata using logic representative of copyright laws of a plurality of countries;

generate, based at least in part on the analyzing of the set of metadata, a numerical confidence level indicative of the work being in the public domain or the work being protected by copyright in a country of the plurality of countries;

determine, based at least partly on the numerical confidence level, a recommendation to one of;

make the work available as a public domain document, make the work available for download in the country, or perform further research related to a public domain status of the work in the country; and

cause display of a user-interface element including the numerical confidence level and the recommendation.