Controllable track-skipping

• US 7,574,513 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2002
• Issued: 08/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pandora Media LLC (Liberty Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kogan, Michael, Doron, Amir, Dunning, Ted E
• Primary Examiner(s): Dennison; J Bret
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shin; Kyung H
• Application Number:
  US10/177,643
• Publication Number:
  US 20030018797A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,609 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/223, 709/217, 709/227, 725/28, 725/115, 725/133, 386/46, 386/65
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product allow users to skip and/or to fast-forward through media items such as songs, while limiting the extent to which skipping is allowed in order to maintain conformance with sound performance complement restrictions such as those specified by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If the user requests a skip that may result in a DMCA violation, the skip is disallowed and the request is denied. Playlists are constructed so that the sound recording performance complement limitations are applied to a longer time period than the period specified in the DMCA, the longer time period being defined by adding an “excess time” to the normal DMCA period. If the user attempts to skip a song or song portion that would cause the aggregated skipped amount to exceed the excess time, the skip is disallowed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting at least one media item to a client;

receiving, from the client, a signal indicating a request to skip a playback time remaining for a media item, the skip having a length representing the playback time remaining for the media item;

selectively limiting, by a processor, skipping during playback comprising;

determining, by the processor, whether adding the length of the requested skip to a current slippage value representing an aggregate playback time previously skipped would exceed a predetermined maximum slippage value representing a maximum time allowable for playback slippage;

allowing, by the processor, the requested skip in a case that said determining makes a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, updating the current slippage value to reflect the requested skip.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein allowing the requested skip comprises transmitting to the client a portion of the media item following the skipped portion of the media item.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein allowing the requested skip comprises transmitting to the client a subsequent media item following the skipped media item.

6. A system comprising:

at least one computing system each comprising at least one processor,

the at least one computing system operating as;

a skip request receiver for receiving user input requesting to skip a playback time remaining for a media item, the skip having a length representing the playback time remaining for the media item;

a slippage tracker, coupled to the skip request receiver, for determining whether adding the length of the requested skip to a current slippage value representing an aggregate playback time previously skipped would exceed a predetermined maximum slippage value representing a maximum time allowable for playback slippage; and

a skip control module, operative with the slippage tracker to selectively limit skipping during media playback, the skip control module allowing the requested skip in a case that the slippage tracker makes a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, the slippage tracker updates the current slippage value to reflect the requested skip.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, the slippage tracker adds the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one computing system further operating as:

a media output device, coupled to the skip control module, for, responsive to the skip control module allowing the requested skip, skipping the requested at least one portion of the media item.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one computing system further operating as:

a media stream requester, coupled to the skip control module, for, responsive to the skip control module allowing the requested skip, requesting from a server a portion of the media item following the skipped portion of the media item.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one computing system further operating as:

a media stream requester, coupled to the skip control module, for, responsive to the skip control module allowing the requested skip, requesting from a server a subsequent media item following the skipped media item.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, the skip control module denies the requested skip.

13. The system of claim 6, wherein the slippage tracker subtracts the added length from the slippage value after a predetermined time period has elapsed since adding the length.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the predetermined time period is three hours.

15. The system of claim 6, wherein the media item comprises a song performed by an artist.

16. The system of claim 6, wherein the media item comprises an audio item.

17. The system of claim 6, wherein the media item comprises a video item.

18. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one computing system further operating as:

a media output device, coupled to the skip control module, for, outputting at least one media item.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one computing system further operating as:

a network interface, coupled to the media output device, for receiving at least one media item from a server.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the media output device receives the at least one media item in a streaming format.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the network interface receives the at least one media item across a network.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the network comprises the Internet.

23. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one computing system further operating as:

a server interface, coupled to the slippage tracker, for receiving, from a server, an estimated maximum skipping amount for a media item; and

wherein the slippage tracker determines whether a cumulative skipped amount for the media item, including the requested skip, would exceed the estimated maximum skipping amount.

24. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one computing system further operating as:

a server interface, coupled to the slippage tracker, for receiving, from a server, an estimated maximum skipping amount for a block of media items;

and wherein the slippage tracker determines whether a cumulative skipped amount for the block of media items, including the requested skip, would exceed the estimated maximum skipping amount.

25. The system of claim 6, wherein the requested skip comprises a skip of a media item associated with an artist.

26. The system of claim 6, wherein the requested skip comprises a skip of a portion of a media item associated with an artist.

27. A system comprising:

at least one computing system each having at least one processor,

the at least one computing system operating as;

a user input receiving device, for receiving input requesting to skip a playback time remaining for of a media item, the skip having a length representing the playback time remaining for the media item;

a slippage tracker, coupled to the user input receiving device, for determining whether adding the length of the requested skip to a current slippage value representing an aggregate playback time previously skipped would exceed a predetermined maximum slippage value representing a maximum time allowable for playback slippage; and

a media output device, operative with the slippage tracker to selectively limit skipping during media playback, the media output device executing the requested skip in a case that the slippage tracker makes a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, the media output device skips a sub- portion of the requested at least one portion of the media item, the subportion having a length that, when added to the current slippage value does not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value.

29. A system comprising:

at least one computing system each having at least one processors,

the at least one computing system operating as;

a user input receiver, for receiving user input requesting to skip a playback time remaining for a media item in a block that includes a plurality of media items, the skip having a length representing the playback time remaining for the media item;

a slippage tracker, coupled to the user input device, for determining whether adding the length of the requested skip to a current slippage value representing an aggregate playback time previously skipped would exceed a predetermined maximum slippage value representing a maximum time allowable for playback slippage; and

a skip control module, operative with the slippage tracker to selectively limit skipping during media playback of the block, the skip control module allowing the requested skip in a case that the slippage tracker makes a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value;

wherein, upon conclusion of media playback of the block, the slippage tracker determines a new slippage value.

30. A system comprising:

at least one computing system each having at least one processors,

the at least one computing system operating as;

a media item transmission channel, for transmitting at least one media item to a client;

a network interface, coupled to the media item transmission channel, for, receiving, from the client, a signal indicating a request to skip playback time remaining for a media item, the skip having a length representing the playback time remaining for the media item;

a skip control module, coupled to the network interface, operative to selectively limit skipping during media playback, the skip control module;

determining whether adding the length of the requested skip to a current slippage value representing an aggregate playback time previously skipped would exceed a predetermined maximum slippage value representing a maximum time allowable for playback slippage; and

allowing the requested skip in a case that a determination is made that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, such that the network interface transmits, to the client, a command allowing the requested skip.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, the skip control module updates the current slippage value to reflect the requested skip.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, the skip control module adds the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, the media item transmission channel transmits to the client a portion of the media item following the skipped portion of the media item.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, the media item transmission channel transmits to the client a subsequent media item following the skipped media item.

35. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium tangibly storing program code embodied thereon comprising:

program code to transmit at least one media item to a client;

program code to receive, from the client, a signal indicating a request to skip a playback time remaining for a media item, the skip having a length representing the playback time remaining for the media item;

program code to selectively limit skipping during playback comprising;

program code to determine whether adding the length of the requested skip to a current slippage value representing an aggregate playback time previously skipped would exceed a predetermined maximum slippage value representing a maximum time allowable for playback slippage; and

program code to allow the requested skip in a case that a determination is made that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value.

36. The computer program product of claim 35, further comprising program code, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, to update the current slippage value to reflect the requested skip.

37. The computer program product of claim 35, further comprising program code, responsive to a determination that adding the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value would not exceed the predetermined maximum slippage value, to add the length of the requested skip to the current slippage value.

38. The computer program product of claim 35, wherein the program code to allow the requested skip comprises program code to transmit to the client a portion of the media item following the skipped portion of the media item.

39. The computer program product of claim 35, wherein the program code to allow the requested skip comprises program code to transmit to the client a subsequent media item following the skipped media item.