Variable user interface based on document access privileges

• US 7,664,751 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Issued: 02/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Smith, Adam, O'Sullivan, Joseph, Sriver, Joe, Khaliq, Siraj, MacGillivray, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam; Shahid A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bullock; Joshua
• Application Number:
  US10/953,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20060074913A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,965 Days
• Field of Search: 707/9, 707/10, 707/5, 726/9, 726/17, 726/4, 726/27, 345/423, 713/1
• US Class Current: 726/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• 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 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices

Abstract

Users may be presented with different viewing interfaces for a document based on a combination of factors relating to display rights possessed for the document and user specific information. In one implementation, the user'"'"'s location is used to determine portions of the document that can be displayed to the user. More particularly, access privileges to a document for a user are determined based on geographical location information of the user and based on access rights possessed for the document. Portions of the document may then be formatted for display to the user based on the determined access privileges.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more devices to implement;

means for receiving a search query from a user;

means for selecting a document that includes terms from the search query;

means for determining access privileges to the document for the user based on geographical location information of the user, access rights associated with the document, and applicable copyright laws, the document access privileges being determined in a spectrum of access privileges that extends from viewable access to the entire document to viewable access to a portion of the document that is less than the entire document;

means for processing selected portions of one or more sections of the document determined to be relevant to the user to make the selected portions unreadable to the user, the selected portions of the one or more sections of the document being chosen based on the determined access privileges and where the one or more sections of the document include the terms from the search query;

means for retrieving additional information relating to the access rights, where the additional information comprises at least one of;

whether to block images and graphics in the document from being displayed,

a list of domains from which not to display advertisements with the document,

a logo or a link to be displayed with the document, or

whether to display advertisements with the document;

means for formatting the document based on the additional information; and

means for transmitting the processed and formatted document to the user.

2. The system of claim 1, where one of the selected portions of the document is processed to display five or less lines of text from a page of the document.

3. The system of claim 1, where the link to be displayed with the document is one of a link to buy the document or a link to promotional material associated with the document.

4. A method performed by a computer system, the method comprising:

retrieving, using one or more processors associated with the computer system, information relating to a user;

receiving, by a communication interface of the computer system, a request for a document from the user;

retrieving, using one or more processors associated with the computer system, access rights for the document, the access rights defining legal display rights of a content provider to display the document;

selecting, using one or more processors associated with the computer system, access privileges to the document for the user based on the information relating to the user and based on the access rights for the document;

processing, using one or more processors associated with the computer system, selected portions of the document, for display to the user, to be unreadable to the user, the selected portions being chosen based on the determined access privileges;

selecting, using one or more processors associated with the computer system, additional information relating to the access rights, where the additional information comprises at least one of;

whether to block images and graphics in the document from being displayed,

a list of domains from which not to display advertisements with the document,

a logo or a link to be displayed with the document, or

whether to display advertisements with the document;

formatting, using one or more processors associated with the computer system, the document based on the additional information; and

transmitting, using a communication interface associated with the computer system, the formatted document to the user for display to the user.

5. The method of claim 4, where the document represents a scanned version of a document.

6. The method of claim 4, where the document represents a book or magazine.

7. The method of claim 4, where the document access privileges are determined in a spectrum of access privileges that extends from fill access to the document to restricted access to the document.

8. The method of claim 7, where the access privileges to the document is specified by standards of an area in which the user is determined to be located.

9. The method of claim 4, where the selected portions of the document include images of pages of the document.

10. The method of claim 9, where the selected portions of the document includes machine-readable text.

11. The method of claim 10,where the document includes metadata relating to the document, the metadata including the access rights associated with the document.

12. The method of claim 4, where the access privileges are further determined by a content of the document.

13. The method of claim 4, where the retrieved information relating to a user includes a security status of the user.

14. The method of claim 4, where the access rights defining the legal display rights define less than full display rights for the document.

15. The method of claim 4, where the information relating to the user includes a location of the user.

16. The method of claim 15, where the location information is determined from an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the user.

17. The method of claim 15, where the location information is determined based on a domain of a network site being visited by the user.

18. The method of claim 15, where the location information of the user and the access rights associated with the document are used to determine the access privileges to the document as a function of applicable copyright laws.

19. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a keyword from the user; and

where the selected portions of the document comprise an instance of the keyword.

20. One or more memory devices containing processing instructions executable by one or more processors, the processing instructions comprising:

one or more instructions to retrieve information relating to a user;

one or more instructions to receive a request for a document from the user;

one or more instructions to retrieve access rights for the document, the access rights defining legal display rights of a content provider to display the document;

one or more instructions to select access privileges to the document for the user based on the information relating to the user and based on the access rights for the document;

one or more instructions to process selected portions of the document, for display to the user, to be unreadable to the user, the selected portions being chosen based on the determined access privileges;

one or more instructions to select additional information relating to the access rights, where the additional information comprises at least one of;

whether to block images and graphics in the document from being displayed,

a list of domains from which not to display advertisements with the document,

a logo or a link to be displayed with the document, or

whether to display advertisements with the document;

one or more instructions to format the document based on the additional information; and

one or more instructions to transmit the processed and formatted document to the user for display to the user.

21. The one or more memory devices of claim 20, where the access rights defining the legal display rights define less than full display rights for the document.

22. The one or more memory devices of claim 20, where the link to be displayed with the document is one of a link to buy the document or a link to promotional material associated with the document.