DATA STORAGE AND ACCESS SYSTEMS

• US 20110073643A1
• Filed: 11/10/2010
• Published: 03/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartflash LLC
• Original Assignee: Smartflash Technologies Limited
• Inventors: HULST, Hermen-ard, RACZ, Patrick Sandor
• Granted Patent: US 8,033,458 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/382
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/61 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/109 by using specially-adapted hardware at the client
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/065 for conductive marks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0457 the tickets being sent electronically
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3276 using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being read by the M-device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/346 Cards serving only as information carrier of service
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/351 Virtual cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/363 with the personal data of a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/16 for devices exhibiting advertisements, announcements, pictures or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3223 Architectural aspects of a gaming system, e.g. internal configuration, master/slave, wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3227 Configuring a gaming machine, e.g. downloading personal settings, selecting working parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 : about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/326 : Game play aspects of gaming systems
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0866 : by active credit-cards adapted therefor G07F7/1008 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91335 : the copy protection signal being a watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91364 : the video signal being scrambled
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 : Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 : for scrambling ; for copy protection

Abstract

Data storage and access systems enable downloading and paying for data such as audio and video data, text, software, games and other types of data. A portable data carrier has an interface for sending and receiving data, data memory for storing received content data, and payment validation memory for providing payment validation data to an external device. The carrier may also store a record of access made to the stored content, and content use rules for controlling access to the stored content. Embodiments store further access control data and supplementary data such as hot links to web sites and/or advertising data. A complementary data access terminal, data supply computer system, and data access device are also described. The combination of payment data and stored content data and use rule data helps reduce the risk of unauthorized access to data such as compressed music and video data, especially over the Internet.

Claims

1. A portable data carrier comprising:

an interface for reading and writing data from and to the carrier;

non-volatile data memory, coupled to the interface, for storing data on the carrier;

non-volatile payment data memory, coupled to the interface, for providing payment data to an external device.

2. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a program store storing code implementable by a processor; and

a processor, coupled to the content data memory, the payment data memory, the interface and to the program store for implementing code in the program store,

wherein the code comprises code to output payment data from the payment data memory to the interface and code to provide external access to the data memory.

3. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a subscriber identity module (SIM) portion to identify a subscriber to a network operator.

4. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 3, wherein said payment data memory is coupled to said SIM portion, and

wherein said providing payment data to an external device comprises providing said payment data to a network operator to charge said subscriber.

5. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 2, further comprising non-volatile use record memory, coupled to the processor, for storing a record of access made to the data memory and code to update the use record memory in response to external access made to the data memory.

6. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 5, further comprising non-volatile use rule memory, coupled to the processor for storing data use rules, and wherein the code further comprises code for storing at least one data item in the data memory and at least one corresponding use rule in the use rule memory and code to provide external access to the data item in accordance with the use rule.

7. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a non-volatile access control memory coupled to the processor, for storing access control data and wherein said code to provide external access to the data memory includes code to receive access request data from the interface, code to determine access permission using the stored access control data and code to provide external access to the data memory in response to the result of the determination.

8. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 14, further comprising non-volatile access record data memory, coupled to the processor, for storing a record of requests for external access to the data memory and wherein said code further comprises code to compare said access record data and said access request data and to erase stored content data in response to a result of said comparison.

9. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 2, configured for storing supplementary data in said data memory, and further comprising code to output the supplementary data from the interface in addition to the stored data, in response to an external request to read the data memory.

10. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 2 further comprising data synthesis code to receive a first portion of data from the interface and to combine the first portion with a second portion of data stored in the data memory and to store the result in the data memory.

11. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 1, further comprising non-volatile communications parameter memory for storing data for accessing a communications network to receive data from the communications network for storage in the data memory.

12. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data memory is partitioned for access on a block-by-block basis, each block comprising a plurality of data bytes read or written as a set.

13. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 1 wherein said data memory has a capacity of greater than 1 MByte, more preferably greater than 100 MBytes, and most preferably greater than 1 GByte.

14. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 1 substantially configured as an IC card or smart card.

15. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data memory comprises pre-stored content.

16. A portable data carrier as claimed in claim 1, wherein the payment data memory comprises pre-stored payment credit.

17. A data access device for retrieving stored data from a data carrier, the device comprising:

a user interface;

a data carrier interface;

a program store storing code implementable by a processor; and

a processor coupled to the user interface, to the data carrier interface and to the program store for implementing the stored code, the code comprising;

code to retrieve use status data indicating a use status of data stored on the carrier, and use rules data indicating permissible use of data stored on the carrier;

code to evaluate the use status data using the use rules data to determine whether access is permitted to the stored data; and

code to access the stored data when access is permitted.

18. A data access device according to claim 17, further comprising code to write updated use status data to the carrier after user access to the stored data.

19. A data access device as claimed in claim 17, further comprising user access control code to input user access data, to transmit the user access data to the carrier, and to receive from the carrier user access permission data.

20. A data access device according to claim 19, further comprising code to select the use status and use rules data using the user access data.

21. A data access device as claimed in claim 19, further comprising code to retrieve and output supplementary data to the user.

22. A data access device according to claim 17 wherein said use rules permit partial use of a data item stored on the carrier and further comprising code to write partial use status data to the data carrier when only part of a stored data item has been accessed.

23. A data access device according to claim 17 wherein the device is portable and the data carrier interface is configured for interfacing with a removable data carrier.

24. A portable data carrier comprising:

an interface for sending and receiving data from and to the carrier;

non-volatile data memory, coupled to the interface, for storing data on the carrier; and

a digital rights management processor for controlling access to the stored data.

25. A portable data carrier comprising:

an interface for sending and receiving data from and to the carrier;

non-volatile data memory, coupled to the interface, for storing data on the carrier; and

an access control processor;

wherein the data memory is partitioned as data blocks and the access control processor controls external access to the data blocks.