Method and system for providing annotations of a digital work

• US 8,131,647 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2005
• Issued: 03/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Siegel, Hilliard B, Manber, Udi, Leblang, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Elisca, Pierre E
• Application Number:
  US11/039,645
• Publication Number:
  US 20060161578A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,603 Days
• Field of Search: 705/57, 705/64
• US Class Current: 705/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Methods and systems for receiving and distributing annotations of a digital work include receiving an annotation of the digital work, storing the annotation, and providing the annotation to a user. The user may be required to submit a valid authorization credential for the annotation. Annotations may be textual or graphical, and may be associated with particular content in a digital work. Indicators may be displayed to identify content in the digital work for which annotations are available. A user may exchange compensation or perform a specified action for access to an annotation. Some or all of the compensation received for an annotation may be distributed to the author of the annotation. Multiple annotations may be listed in an order based a criterion, such as ranking, price, or date of receipt. Users that purchase a digital work may automatically receive an authorization credential to receive annotations of the digital work.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing an annotation of a digital work, comprising:

under control of instructions that are executed by one or more computing devices;

receiving multiple annotations from different authors for particular content in a digital work;

storing the annotations in association with the digital work;

providing a list of abbreviated versions of the annotations to a user desiring to access one or more of the annotations, wherein the list presents the annotations in an order determined by reference to a criterion;

receiving an authorization credential from a user desiring to access one or more of the annotations; and

if the authorization credential is valid, providing a full version of one or more of the annotations of the digital work to the user in context with regard to the digital work.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein an annotation of the digital work is received in a graphical format.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the annotation of the digital work is received in handwriting format.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein an annotation includes highlighting of text in the digital work.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein an annotation is provided such that the annotation is viewable by the user concurrent with a display of the digital work.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein an annotation is provided such that the annotation is normally hidden and becomes viewable when a cursor or pointer is positioned near the particular content in the digital work.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital work is textual and the particular content in the digital work is identified by an indicator displayed near the text of the digital work.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital work is an audio or audiovisual work and the particular content in the digital work is identified by an indicator displayed with a playback control provided for playback of the digital work.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular content in the digital work is identified by an indicator displayed with a listing of contents for the digital work.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein an annotation includes an image.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the user has obtained the authorization credential in exchange for compensation paid by the user, the method further comprising distributing compensation to the author of an annotation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein compensation is distributed to the author after receiving an indication of satisfaction from the user to whom the annotation is provided.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the authorization credential is specific to an annotation desired by the user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the criterion is a ranking of the annotations assigned by others who previously have viewed the annotations.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the criterion is a price assigned to each of the annotations.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the criterion is a date of receipt of each of the annotations.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein an annotation, when combined with the digital work to which it pertains, becomes accessible upon accessing the digital work.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the user has obtained the authorization credential in exchange for purchase of the digital work to which an annotation pertains.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the user has obtained the authorization credential in exchange for user-performance of a specified action.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the specified action is electronically previewing a digital work.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the specified action is contributing an annotation of a digital work.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising submitting the authorization credential to a validation system that generates an indication of the credential'"'"'s validity.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution by a computing system, cause the computing system to:

receive from a client system an annotation of a digital work by a first user;

store the annotation in a memory in association with the digital work;

require a second user desiring to access the annotation of the first user to perform a specified action before providing an authorization credential to the second user, wherein the specified action is contributing an annotation of a digital work; and

upon receipt of the authorization credential from the second user desiring to access the annotation, provide the annotation to a client system for output to the second user, wherein the annotation is provided in context with regard to the digital work.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further configured with program instructions that direct the computing system to receive the annotation in a graphical format.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that direct the computing system to receive the annotation in a textual format.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that direct the computing system to store the annotation in association with particular content in the digital work.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that direct the computing system to receive the annotation in the form of an image.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that direct the computing system to facilitate a payment of compensation from the user for access to the annotation and distribute compensation to the author of the annotation.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, further having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that direct the computing system to distribute compensation to the author after receiving an indication of satisfaction from the user to whom the annotation is provided.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the authorization credential is specific to the annotation provided to the user.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that direct the computing system to provide the annotation to the user only after the user has purchased the digital work to which the annotation pertains.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the specified action is electronically previewing a digital work.

33. A computer-implemented method for providing an annotation of a digital work, comprising:

under control of instructions that are executed by one or more computing devices;

obtaining a first representation of a digital work, the first representation comprising one or more images;

obtaining a second representation of the digital work, the second representation comprising content of the digital work in a form that allows particular content of the digital work to be indicated, the particular content being correlatable with one or more locations in the one or more images at which the particular content is represented;

receiving an annotation of the digital work in regard to indicated particular content of the digital work; and

providing to a user the annotation in context with regard to the digital work.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising providing one or more images of the digital work to the user such that the annotation provided to the user is perceptibly associated by the user with the particular content in the digital work.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the annotation is configured to appear to the user superposed on one or more of the images of the digital work.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein the annotation is configured to appear adjacent to one or more of the images of the digital work.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the images further include an indication of the particular content to which the annotation pertains.

38. The method of claim 33, wherein the digital work originates from a source and wherein the author of the annotation and the source of the digital work are different.

39. The method of claim 33, wherein the digital work originates from a source and wherein the user to whom the annotation is provided and the source of the digital work are different.

40. The method of claim 33, wherein the annotation is provided to the user via an online marketplace.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the annotation is provided to the user together with the digital work via the online marketplace.

42. The method of claim 33, wherein an annotation of the digital work is further subject to annotation by another author.

43. The method of claim 33, wherein the indication of particular content of the digital work to which the annotation pertains is received from an author of the annotation.

44. A computing system programmed to provide a marketplace for annotations of digital works, comprising:

a computing subsystem that receives digital works from a plurality of sources;

a computing subsystem that receives annotations of digital works from a plurality of authors;

a computing subsystem that receives requests for annotations from a plurality of users and delivers annotations to requesting users; and

a computing subsystem that facilitates receiving compensation from users for delivery of annotations and distributing compensation to authors of the delivered annotations,

wherein the compensation distributed to an author is conditioned on an indication of satisfaction from the user to whom the annotation was delivered.

45. The computing system of claim 44, wherein the compensation distributed to an author is a portion of the compensation received from a user.

46. The computing system of claim 44, wherein the compensation received from a user is represented by a valid authorization credential received from the user.

47. The computing system of claim 44, wherein the compensation received from a user is performance by the user of a specified action.

48. The computing system of claim 44, wherein the compensation received from a user is included in compensation paid by the user to access a digital work.

49. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution by a computing system, cause the computing system to:

receive multiple annotations from different authors for particular content in a digital work;

store the annotations in association with the digital work;

provide a list of abbreviated versions of the annotations to a user desiring to access one or more of the annotations, wherein the list presents the annotations in an order determined by reference to a criterion;

receive an authorization credential from the user desiring to access one or more of the annotations; and

if the authorization credential is valid, provide a full version of the one or more annotations of the digital work to the user in context with regard to the digital work.

50. The computer-readable medium of claim 49, wherein the criterion is a ranking of the annotations assigned by others who previously have viewed the annotations.

51. The computer-readable medium of claim 49, wherein the criterion is a price assigned to each of the annotations.

52. The computer-readable medium of claim 49, wherein the criterion is a date of receipt of each of the annotations.