# US 2008/0189283 A1 · Method and system for monitoring and moderating files on a network

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- Number: US 2008/0189283 A1
- Document ID: US20080189283A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 11/616,166
- Filed: 2006-12-26
- Published: 2008-08-07
- Earliest claimed: 2006-02-17
- Assignees: Yahoo! Inc.
- Inventors: Michael Quoc; Nathanael Joe Hayashi
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20080189283A1

## CPC

- G06F 16/14: Details of searching files based on file metadata
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)

## Abstract

Systems and methods have been developed for monitoring and moderating files on a network. The systems and methods may provide the ability for a publisher of a file to review the uses and users of the file on a network and the ability for a publisher to negotiate and sell rights in the file. The systems and methods may provide the ability to a user to research who owns a file and whether rights in the file are for sale. For example, the systems and methods may provide the ability to a user to request to buy rights in the file, even if there is not presently an offer to sell the rights.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method comprising:
receiving a request from a user to determine a status of a first right in a first file;
generating a first bit print from the first file;
matching a second bit print to the first bit print, the second bit print having been generated from a second file before the generation of the first bit print; and
determining whether the first right is available in the second file.

### Claim at position 2

2-3. (canceled)

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the first right is available in the second file is performed based on a link describing an association of the first bit print and the second bit print.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
retrieving usage data associated with the second file, the usage data representing how the second file is presented on a publicly accessible network;
wherein determining whether the first right is available in the second file is performed based on the usage data.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further including:
if the first right is available in the second file, determining whether the first right in the second file has been offered for sale by an owner of the first right in the second file.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, further including:
if the first right in the second file has not been offered for sale, soliciting an offer for sale from the owner.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein soliciting the offer for sale from the owner includes proposing a term of sale to the owner.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
presenting the second file to the user; and
receiving a selection of the second file from the user that the second file is satisfactorily equivalent to the first file.

### Claim 10

A method comprising:
locating a first file on a publicly accessible network, wherein the first file contains content;
retrieving the first file from the publicly accessible network;
creating a first unique identifier from the first file, wherein the first unique identifier is a representation of the content of the first file; and
storing the first unique identifier in a database containing a plurality of unique identifiers.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
determining a second unique identifier which represents a second file similar to the first file, wherein the second unique identifier is part of the plurality of unique identifiers.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The method of claim 11, further comprising:
associating the second unique identifier and the first unique identifier via a linking document.

### Claim 13 (depends on 11)

The method of claim 11, further comprising:
determining an owner of a right in the second file.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, further comprising:
determining whether the owner has offered the right for sale.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14, further comprising:
if the owner has offered the right for sale, retrieving a term of the sale offered for the right.

### Claim 16 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
retrieving usage data describing how the first file is presented on the publicly accessible network; and
associating the usage data with the first unique identifier.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, further comprising:
storing the first unique identifier and the usage data in the database.

### Claim 18 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, wherein the usage data includes the location on the network where the first file is presented.

### Claim at position 18

19-20. (canceled)

### Claim 21 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
pseudo-randomly crawling the publicly accessible network.

### Claim 22 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
crawling the publicly accessible network according to an algorithm.

### Claim 23

(canceled)

### Claim 24 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein creating the first unique identifier includes transforming the first file into the first unique identifier.

### Claim 25 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the first unique identifier is a bit print.

### Claim 26

A system comprising:
an arbitration engine which receives a unique identifier representing a file;
a usage database in communication with the arbitration engine;
a rights database in communication with the arbitration engine;
wherein the arbitration engine retrieves usage data from the usage database, the usage data representing how the file is presented on a publicly accessible network;
wherein the arbitration engine retrieves rights data from the rights database, the rights data indicating whether there exists a right available in the file which is offered for sale by an owner of the right; and
wherein the arbitration engine creates a recommendation for a transaction if there is not a right available in the file offered for sale by the owner of the right.

### Claim 27 (depends on 26)

The system of claim 26, wherein the recommendation for the transaction includes a recommended term for a sale of the available right in the file.

### Claim 28

(canceled)

### Claim 29

A system comprising:
a file locating engine which searches for unknown files on a publicly accessible network;
an identification engine which receives the unknown files from the file locating engine and makes the unknown files known by creating a unique identifier for each unknown file received from the file locating engine; and
a cataloging engine which receives unique identifiers from the identification engine, determines which of the unique identifiers represent known files similar to each other, creates associations between unique identifiers based on the determination, and stores the unique identifiers based on the associations.

### Claim 30 (depends on 29)

The system of claim 29, further comprising:
an arbitration engine which receives from the identification engine a requested unique identifier representing a requested file;
a usage database in communication with the arbitration engine;
a rights database in communication with the arbitration engine;
wherein the arbitration engine retrieves usage data from the usage database, wherein the usage data is associated with the requested unique identifier and is associated with the requested file;
wherein the arbitration engine retrieves rights data from the rights database, wherein the rights data is associated with the requested unique identifier and is associated with the requested file;
wherein the arbitration engine identifies an available right in the requested file based on the rights data; and
wherein the arbitration engine creates a recommendation for a transaction of the available right based on the usage data and the available right.

### Claim 31 (depends on 30)

The system of claim 30, wherein the recommendation for the transaction includes a recommended term for a sale of the available right in the requested file.

### Claim 32

(canceled)