Content identification, personal domain, copyright notification, metadata and e-Commerce

• US 20040243634A1
• Filed: 03/05/2004
• Published: 12/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Levy, Kenneth L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,244,639 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• 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: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets

Abstract

Piracy of digital content is currently a large problem. Copyright notification and sales of metadata can help counteract the problem. The novel solution shows different methods to provide copyright notification and sell metadata, such as including identification of the content (via digital watermarks, fingerprints, or header data) and a personal domain. Metadata is ideal to sell since it is dynamic, and, thus, is accessed from a master server.

Claims

1. A method of managing media content comprising:

receiving the media content in a personal domain;

extracting a content identifier from the content;

sending a personal domain identifier of the personal domain and the content identifier to a database to determine from the database whether the personal domain has rights to play the media content based on the content identifier, the personal domain identifier and rights associated with the content identifier and personal domain identifier; and

presenting a copyright notice depending on whether the personal domain has rights to play the media content.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the personal domain identifier corresponds to a device ID of a device in the personal domain.

3. The method of claim 1 including presenting one or more user selectable options with the copyright notice, the one or more options including an option to purchase the media content.

4. The method of claim 1 including presenting one or more user selectable options with the copyright notice, the one or more options including an option to play the media content in a case where the personal domain does not have the rights to play the media content.

5. The method of claim 1 including presenting one or more user selectable options with the copyright notice, the one or more options including an option to obtain more information about the media content.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the database is within a consumer'"'"'s network.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the database is updated when content is delivered to the personal domain.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the database is updated when content playing is requested in the personal domain.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the database is located on a remote network from the personal domain.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the database is distributed on the remote network based on usage.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the personal domain identifier comprises a single identifier that is associated with two or more different device identifiers of devices in a personal domain.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the personal domain identifier comprises a device identifier, and wherein a database is used to associate two or more different device identifiers of different devices with a single personal domain including the different devices.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the personal domain identifier is defined based on a physical connection or distance between different devices in a personal domain.

14. A method for distributing metadata associated with media content, the method comprising:

receiving the media content in a personal domain;

extracting a content identifier from the content;

sending a personal domain identifier of the personal domain and the content identifier to a database to determine from the database whether the personal domain has rights to access metadata about the media content based on the personal domain identifier; and

presenting a user selectable option for accessing metadata depending on whether the personal domain has rights to access metadata.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the personal domain identifier corresponds to a device ID of a device in the personal domain.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the database is within a consumer'"'"'s network.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the database is updated when content is delivered to the personal domain.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the database is updated when content playing is requested in the personal domain.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein the database is located on a remote network from the personal domain.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the database is distributed on the remote network based on usage.

21. The method of claim 14 wherein the personal domain identifier comprises a single identifier that is associated with two or more different device identifiers of devices in a personal domain.

22. The method of claim 14 wherein the personal domain identifier comprises a device identifier, and wherein a database is used to associate two or more different device identifiers of different devices with a single personal domain including the different devices.

23. The method of claim 14 wherein the personal domain identifier is defined based on a physical connection or distance between different devices in a personal domain.

24. A method for managing copyrighted media content comprising:

receiving media content;

from the content, extracting content identification using one of the group consisting of;

a digital watermark, a content fingerprint, and header data;

in response to extracting the content identification and identifying a copyrighted work, presenting a copyright notification with a user selectable option that a user selects to continue with use of the media content.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the use of the media content comprises rendering the media content.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the use comprises transferring the media content to portable media.

27. The method of claim 24 including:

presenting a user with a user selectable option to learn more about the media content.

28. A method of distributing metadata associated with media content, the method comprising:

maintaining a personal domain identifier for different devices in a personal domain;

maintaining content identifiers to identify media content and associate metadata with media content items;

enabling sharing of metadata for a content item among devices in the personal domain when the personal domain has rights to access the metadata for the content item.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein rights to access the metadata for the content item are tracked in a metadata rights database, and checking the metadata rights database in response to a request from a device within a personal domain to determine whether the personal domain has rights to access the metadata for the content item.

30. The method of claim 28 including providing metadata access rights with metadata for the content item to control transfer of the metadata among devices in the personal domain.

31. The method of claim 28 including associating metadata with the content item so that the content item and the metadata can be shared among devices in the personal domain.