US 7,096,203 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for dynamic renewability of content

AssigneeDuet General Partnership

InventorsWilliam E Pence, Dik Langan, Cynthia Healy, Geoff Schreiber, Donna Penick

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for dynamically and transparently renewing licenses associated with downloaded content. Licensing associated with content can allow the provider to retain control over the content after it has been downloaded on to the user's computer. A license file or similar licensing parameter is the key to retaining control over access to the content after it has been downloaded. The license file may also control copying of the content on to computers other than the original computer used. The dynamic renewal method will transparently renew the license files on a user's computer to allow the associated content to be used without disruption as long as the user's account is in good standing.

Claims16

Dependent claims

An apparatus for providing dynamic renewability for content provided from a content provider to a user, comprising:

a content provider system, said content provider system including:
a content server, to store and retrieving content items;
a communication server, communicating with said user, said communication server receiving content items from said content server and communicating said content items to said user;
and
a license server, monitoring an amount and a type of content communicated to said user, said license server having stored thereon one or more license files, each said license file containing one or more parameters relating to one of said content items including information regarding the content and a date;
and a user system, said user system including:
a communication application, communicating with said communication server in order to receive content items and license files;
a client application running on said user system receiving said license files and a user input and providing said user input to said communication application;
a license storage, storing said one or more license files on said user system;
a content information storage, storing information regarding content items requested by said user and received from said content provider system;
and
a registry storing said date;
wherein said content provider system comprises a device to transmit said license files to said user without notifying said user.

10 more elements

A method for dynamic renewability of content comprising the steps of:

receiving a request for content from a client running on a computer of a user;
verifying that the user is authorized to receive the content;
creating a license file having one or more parameters for the user requested content when the user is authorized, wherein the license file parameters includes information regarding the content and a date;
transmitting the license file to the client without notifying the user;
storing on the user computer the information regarding the content in a local database, storing the license file in a license store, and storing the date in a registry;
transmitting the user requested content item from a provider system to the user;
permitting access to the content by the user when the license file is received by the user computer;
comparing the one or more parameters contained in the license file to corresponding one or more provider system license file parameters to determine whether or not the user is allowed access to the user requested content item;
and
selectively renewing the parameters in the license file, without notifying the user, when the parameters in the license file differ from the corresponding provider system license file parameters to allow continued access to the user requested content item by the user in accordance with the provider system license file parameters.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/017,498Filed 14 Dec 2001
Published: US 2003/0115069 A119 Jun 2003
Granted: 22 Aug 2006
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

G06F 21/10
Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity: protecting distributed…
G06Q 30/02
Commerce: marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
G06F 2221/2101
Indexing scheme relating to G06F21/00 and subgroups addressing additional information or applications relating to security arrangements for…:…
G06F 2221/2135
Indexing scheme relating to G06F21/00 and subgroups addressing additional information or applications relating to security arrangements for…: metering