Method and apparatus for uniquely identifying a customer purchase in an electronic distribution system

A system for tracking usage of digital content on user devices wherein more than one piece of identical digital content may be present, said system comprising:

• a plurality of content sites for distributing digital content over computer readable medium to users, wherein the content contains a unique content identifier associated therewith;
• a plurality of electronic stores for granting licenses in encrypted secured container to play digital content data to users, each electronic store being coupled to a network, wherein the licenses contain a unique transaction identifier for uniquely identifying the transaction, and the licenses contain a unique item identifier or position identifier in the encrypted secured container so that when there are two or more pieces of identical content in the encrypted secured container along with licenses associated therewith, each piece of identical content has a unique item number;
• and
• a plurality of content players for playing content data, each digital content player receiving, from the network the digital content data licensed by one of the users;
• wherein the content players produce a purchase identifier based upon a mathematical combination of the content identifier, the transaction identifier and the item identifier.

A digital content player for uniquely identifying digital content wherein more than one piece of the identical digital content may be present, the digital content delivered to the digital content player over a telecommunications network or via computer readable medium, the digital content player comprising:

• means for receiving two or more pieces of identical digital content in an encrypted secured container;
• means for receiving a first identifier which uniquely identifies the content received from a content provider;
• means for receiving a second identifier which uniquely identifies a transaction by which the content was received;
• means for receiving a third identifier for each piece of content received in the encrypted secured container, the third identifier based upon an item number or position number in the encrypted secured container for each piece of content received, so that if there are two or more pieces of identical content present in the encrypted secured container then a unique third identifier is assigned to each piece of content respectively;
• means for producing a fourth unique identifier based upon a mathematical combination of the first identifier, the second identifier, and the third identifier;
• and
• means for associating the fourth unique identifier with each piece of digital content received so to uniquely identify each piece of content by the fourth identifier even when there are two or more pieces of identical content present in the encrypted secured container.

A computer readable medium containing program instructions for uniquely identifying digital content on a digital content player wherein more than one piece of the identical digital content may be present, the digital content delivered to the digital content player over a telecommunications network or via computer readable medium, the computer readable medium comprising instructions for:

• receiving two or more pieces of identical digital content in an encrypted secured container;
• receiving a first identifier which uniquely identifies the content received from a content provider;
• receiving a second identifier which uniquely identifies a transaction by which the content was received;
• receiving a third identifier for each piece of content received in the encrypted secured container, the third identifier based upon an item number or position number in the encrypted secured container for each piece of content received, so that if there are two or more pieces of identical content present in the encrypted secured container then a unique third identifier is assigned to each piece of content respectively;
• producing a fourth unique identifier based upon a mathematical combination of the first identifier, the second identifier, and the third identifier;
• and
• associating the fourth unique identifier with each piece of digital content received so to uniquely identify each piece of content by the fourth identifier even when there are two or more pieces of identical content present in the encrypted secured container.