Digital content distribution systems and methods

• US 20060190413A1
• Filed: 02/23/2006
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Trans World New York LLC (Kaspien Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Trans World New York LLC (Kaspien Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Harper, Gregory W.
• Application Number:
  US11/359,762
• Publication Number:
  US 20060190413A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/65
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1063 Personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2117 User registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2147 Locking files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to storing a token file on a portable device, wherein the token file may store information pertaining to user preferences and/or account information.

Claims

1. In a computer system, a computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code stored in the medium, the computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code configured to cause the computer system to gather and/or create (i) information pertaining to one or more digital media accounts used by a user of the computer system and/or (ii) information pertaining to a portable device connected to the computer system;

computer readable program code configured to cause the computer system to store the information in a token file;

computer readable program code configured to cause the computer system to communicate with a central server to create an account for the user at the central server if the user does not have an account at the central server; and

computer readable program code configured to cause the computer system to transmit the token file to the central server and/or the portable device.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the information pertaining to the one or more digital media accounts comprises the user'"'"'s username and password for one of the one or more digital media accounts used by the user.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the information pertaining to the one or more digital media accounts comprises information pertaining to content purchased by the user through the digital media accounts.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the information pertaining to content purchased by the user through the digital media accounts comprises a list of at least substantially all of the content purchased by the user through the digital media accounts.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, further comprising computer readable program code configured to cause the computer to transmit the list to the central server, wherein the central server associates the received list with the account created for the user.

6. The computer program product of claim 5, further comprising computer readable program code configured to cause the computer to restore to the computer the content included in the list in response to a restore content request received by the user.

7. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the information pertaining to content purchased by the user through the digital media accounts comprises information pertaining to digital content licenses obtained through the digital media accounts.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, further comprising computer readable program code configured to cause the computer to transmit the content licenses to the central server, wherein the central server associates the received licenses with the account created for the user.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the information pertaining to the one or more digital media accounts comprises information pertaining to the user'"'"'s content preferences.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the information pertaining to the user'"'"'s content preferences comprises purchase history information.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, comprising computer readable program code configured to cause the computer to store the token file on the portable device so that the portable device stores the information pertaining to the user'"'"'s content preferences.

12. A method, comprising:

providing in a location generally accessible to the public a first device for assisting a user in acquiring digital content;

enabling the user to connect a second device to the first device, wherein the second device is a portable device;

upon detecting that the portable device is connected to the first device, retrieving from a memory unit contained within or connected to the portable device information pertaining to the user and/or the portable device; and

displaying a graphical user interface on a display screen of the first device, wherein at least some of the content of the graphical user interface is based, at least in part, on at least some of the retrieved information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the retrieved information consists of or comprises (i) an encoding format identifier that can be used to identify a preferred encoding format and/or (ii) an account identifier, wherein a server stores the account identifier such that the account identifier is associated with an encoding format identifier that can be used to identify a preferred encoding format.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a request from the user to acquire a selected item;

storing a plurality of copies of the selected item, wherein each copy of the selected item is encoded according to a different encoding format, and wherein at least one of the copies is encoded according to the preferred encoding format;

using the encoding format identifier to retrieve a copy of the selected item that is encoded according to the preferred encoding format; and

storing the copy of the selected item in the memory unit.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a request from the user to preview the selected item prior to receiving the request to acquire the selected item;

retrieving a preview of the selected item in response to receiving the request to preview the selected item; and

playing the preview for the user.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the retrieved information comprises the encoding format identifier that can be used to identify the preferred encoding format.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the retrieved information further comprises a set of item identifiers, wherein each item identifier in the set identifies an item acquired by the user.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of using at least one of the item identifiers included in the set to select an item to suggest to the user.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of adding an item identifier to the set of item identifiers stored in the memory unit prior to the user disconnecting the portable device from the first device, wherein the added item identifier identifies the item acquired by the user.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the retrieved information is stored in a token file stored in the memory unit.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the token stored in the memory unit is encrypted.

22. The method of claim 12, wherein the retrieved information consists of or comprises an account identifier, wherein a server stores account information that is uniquely associated with the account identifier, wherein the account information comprises information identifying a preference of the user.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the information identifying a preference of the user comprises an encoding format identifier identifying a preferred encoding format.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

prompting the user to enter password prior to displaying the graphical user interface; and

determining whether the entered password matches a stored password associated with the account identifier prior to displaying the graphical user interface.

25. A method, comprising:

providing in a location generally accessible to the public a first device for assisting a user to acquire digital content;

enabling the user to connect a second device to the first device, wherein the second device is a portable device;

upon detecting that the portable device is connected to the first device, retrieving from a memory unit contained within or connected to the portable device information pertaining to the user'"'"'s preferences, wherein the information pertaining to the user'"'"'s preferences comprises (i) an encoding format identifier that can be used to identify a preferred encoding format and/or (ii) an account identifier, wherein a server stores the account identifier such that the account identifier is associated with an encoding format identifier that can be used to identify a preferred encoding format;

receiving, at the first device, a request from the user to acquire a selected item, wherein a plurality of copies of the selected item are stored in a memory unit accessible to a server, wherein each of the plurality of copies of the selected item is encoded according to a different encoding format, and at least one of the copies is encoded according to the preferred encoding format;

using the encoding format identifier to retrieve from the memory unit a copy of the selected item that is encoded according to the preferred encoding format; and

storing the retrieved copy of the selected item in the portable device memory unit.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

receiving a request from the user to preview the selected item prior to receiving the request to acquire the selected item;

retrieving a preview of the selected item in response to receiving the request to preview the selected item; and

playing the preview for the user.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the information pertaining to the user'"'"'s preferences comprises the encoding format identifier that can be used to identify the preferred encoding format.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the information pertaining to the user'"'"'s preferences further comprises a set of item identifiers, wherein each item identifier in the set identifies an item acquired by the user.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising the step of using at least one of the item identifiers included in the set to select an item to suggest to the user.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising the step of adding an item identifier to the set of item identifiers stored in the memory unit prior to the user disconnecting the portable device from the first device, wherein the added item identifier identifies the item acquired by the user.

31. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of displaying a graphical user interface on a display screen of the first device, wherein at least some of the content of the graphical user interface is based, at least in part, on at least some of the information pertaining to the user'"'"'s preferences.

32. The method of claim 25, wherein the information pertaining to the user'"'"'s preferences is stored in a token file stored in the memory unit.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the token stored in the memory unit is encrypted.

34. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

prompting the user to enter password after retrieving the information pertaining to the user'"'"'s preferences; and

determining whether the entered password matches a stored password associated with the account identifier prior to receiving, at the first device, the request.

35. A method, comprising:

providing in a location generally accessible to the public a first device for assisting a user in acquiring digital content;

enabling the user to connect a media player device to the first device; and

while the media player device is connected to the first device;

retrieving from a memory unit contained within or connected to the media player device information pertaining to a user;

creating a personalized a graphical user interface using the retrieved information; and

displaying the personalized graphical user interface on a display screen of the first device.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the information pertaining to the user comprises preference information pertaining to the user.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the preference information pertaining to the user comprises a list of the music recently played by the user.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the preference information pertaining to the user comprises a playlist.

39. The method of claim 36, wherein the preference information pertaining to the user comprises an activity history.

40. The method of claim 35, wherein the personalized graphical user interface comprises a list of suggested items, wherein the list was determined based on the information pertaining to the user.