Methods and systems of dynamically managing content for use by a media playback device

A method of managing content to be played back at a playback device in association with a portable processor readable storage medium, the method comprising:

• receiving a request, from a remote playback device and over a distributed network, to move a first content currently stored in local storage of the remote playback device;
• identifying the playback device from which the request is received;
• determining whether virtual storage is associated with the identified playback device;
• storing content to a virtual storage;
• and
• associating the stored content stored in the virtual storage with the identified playback device;
• wherein the associating the stored content with the identified playback device comprises updating a virtual storage table to include an identification of the stored content stored in the virtual storage, the identification of the playback device and an association between the identification of the stored content and the identification of the playback device;
• and
• wherein the associating the stored content with the identified playback device comprises:
• obtaining, from the remote device, a certificate recorded on a portable storage medium being accessed by the playback device at the time the request to store the first content on the virtual storage is issued from the playback device;
• and
• storing the certificate in the virtual storage table and associating the certificate with the identification of the stored content.

A method of managing content to be played back at a playback device in association with a portable processor readable storage medium, the method comprising:

• receiving a request, from a remote playback device and over a distributed network, to move a first content currently stored in local storage of the remote playback device;
• identifying the playback device from which the request is received;
• determining whether virtual storage is associated with the identified playback device;
• storing content to a virtual storage;
• associating the stored content stored in the virtual storage with the identified playback device;
• determining a data size of the first content;
• determining whether storing the first content would exceed a virtual storage limit of the virtual storage associated with the identified playback device;
• removing one or more contents from the virtual storage when the virtual storage limit would be exceeded;
• and
• allowing storage to the virtual storage in response to the removing the one or more contents;
• wherein the removing the one or more contents comprises:
• obtaining, from the remote device, a certificate recorded on a portable storage medium being access by the playback device at the time the request to store the first content on the virtual storage is issued from the playback device;
• identifying content stored on the virtual storage that correspond to the certificate;
• and
• the removing one or more contents comprises removing content that correspond to the certificate.

A method of managing content to be played back at a playback device in association with a portable processor readable storage medium, the method comprising:

• receiving a request, from a remote playback device and over a distributed network, to move a first content currently stored in local storage of the remote playback device;
• identifying the playback device from which the request is received;
• determining whether virtual storage is associated with the identified playback device;
• storing content to a virtual storage;
• associating the stored content stored in the virtual storage with the identified playback device;
• wherein storing the content in the virtual storage comprises:
• determining whether a second content is to be stored in the virtual storage in place of the first content;
• storing the second content to the virtual storage in response to determining that the second content is to be stored in the virtual storage in place of the first content;
• and
• the associating the stored content with the identified playback device comprises associating the second content with the identified playback device and the first content such that subsequent requests to retrieve the first content are directed to retrieve the second content in place of the first content;
• determining whether a secondary playback device, which is different from the playback device requesting the first content be moved to the virtual storage and that is authorized to access the virtual storage associated with the first playback device, can utilize the second content in response to determining that second content is not usable by the playback device requesting the first content be moved to the virtual storage;
• authorizing the storing of the second content to the virtual storage in response to determining that the second content can be utilized by the secondary playback device;
• and
• associating the second content with the secondary playback device and the first content such that subsequent requests from the secondary playback device to retrieve the first content are directed to the second content instead of the first content.