Virtual repair of digital media

A method for virtual repair of digital media using a virtual repair service comprising:

• receiving, from a media player reading the digital media stored on a digital media device, a request to perform a virtual repair of a segment of unreadable digital content of the digital media using a virtual repair unit;
• retrieving, from a media repository using the virtual repair unit, a readable copy of the digital content corresponding to the segment of unreadable digital content identified in the request;
• determining, by the virtual repair unit and in response to the request, whether to perform the virtual repair based on a virtual repair rule assessing the validity of the request;
• transmitting the readable copy of the digital content to the media player for insertion into a buffer of the media player responsive to a determination to perform the repair request;
• maintaining an identification of a plurality of media players requesting a copy of readable digital content segments for the digital media and a record of the digital content segments requested by the players for the digital media;
• determining whether the plurality of media players are attempting to eschew the virtual repair rule;
• and
• denying the request in response to the determining.

A system for virtual repair of digital media comprising:

• a media repository storing a readable copy of the digital media;
• and
• a virtual repair unit configured to interface with the media repository, the virtual repair unit receiving, from a media player reading the digital media stored on a digital media device, a request to perform a virtual repair of a segment of unreadable digital content of the digital media using a virtual repair unit, the request to perform a virtual repair including a player identifier;
• retrieving, from the media repository, a readable copy of the digital content corresponding to the segment of unreadable digital content identified in the request;
• and transmitting the readable copy of the digital content to the media player for insertion into a buffer of the media player,
• wherein the virtual repair unit includes an authorization unit configured to determine whether the media player is authorized to use the virtual repair service based on a player identifier included in the request and to ascertain the validity of the request by determining whether the request complies with a virtual repair rule.

A system for virtual repair of digital media comprising:

• a media repository storing a readable copy of the digital media;
• and
• a virtual repair unit configured to interface with the media repository, the virtual repair unit receiving, from a media player reading the digital media stored on a digital media device, a request to perform a virtual repair of a segment of unreadable digital content of the digital media using a virtual repair unit;
• retrieving, from the media repository, a readable copy of the digital content corresponding to the segment of unreadable digital content identified in the request;
• and transmitting the readable copy of the digital content to the media player for insertion into a buffer of the media player,
• wherein the virtual repair unit includes an authorization unit configured to determine whether the media player is authorized to use the virtual repair service and to ascertain the validity of the request by determining whether the request complies with a virtual repair rule, and
• wherein the request includes an amount of readable digital content that is substantially equal to an amount of unreadable digital content being requested, the virtual repair unit being configured to determine a validity of the readable digital content and to perform the virtual repair service in response to a determination of the validity.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a computing system including at least one computing device, wherein execution of the instructions implements a method for virtual repair of digital media comprising:

• receiving, from a media player reading the digital media store on a digital media device, a request to perform a virtual repair of a segment of unreadable digital content of the digital media using a virtual repair unit, the player identifier included in the virtual repair request to perform a virtual repair;
• retrieving, from a media repository using the virtual repair unit, a readable copy of the digital content corresponding to the segment of unreadable digital content identified in the request;
• transmitting the readable copy of the digital content to the media player for insertion into a buffer of the media player;
• and
• determining, by the virtual repair unit and in response to the request, whether to perform the virtual repair based on a virtual repair rule assessing the validity of the request, the player identifier being used by the virtual repair unit to determine whether the media player is authorized to use the virtual repair service.