General purpose metering mechanism for distribution of electronic information

A system that distributes electronic information, comprising:

• a publisher/advertiser unit that generates and transmits a unit of information which has a content data and a content title;
• a plurality of client computers which receive said content title, said client computers each being operated by an end user which can request access to said content data;
• a metering server that receives said unit of information, transfers said content title to said plurality of client computers of said end users, and transfers said content data to said client computer of said end user that requests said content data;
• and
• a clearinghouse server which transfers said unit of information to said metering server.

A system that distributes electronic information, comprising:

• external device means for transmitting a unit of information which has a content data and a content title;
• a plurality of client computers which receive said content title, said client computers each being operated by an end user which can request access to said content data;
• and
• metering means for receiving said unit of information, transferring said content title to said plurality of client computers of said end users, and transferring said content data to said client computer of said end user that requests said content data.

A system that distributes electronic information, comprising:

• publisher/advertiser means for generating and transmitting a unit of information which has a content data and a content title;
• a plurality of client computers which receive said content title, said client computers each being operated by an end user which can request access to said content data;
• metering means for receiving said unit of information, transferring said content title to said plurality of client computers of said end users, and transferring said content data to said client computer of said end user that requests said content data;
• and
• clearinghouse means for transferring said unit of information from said publisher/advertiser means to said metering means.

A method for distributing electronic information, comprising the steps of:

• a) generating a unit of information that has a content data and a content title;
• b) transmitting said unit of information from a publisher/advertiser to a metering server;
• c) transmitting said content title to a plurality of client computers, each being operated by an end user;
• d) requesting said content data by an end user;
• and,
• e) transmitting said content data to said client computer of said end user that requested said content data.