System, method and apparatus for controlling the dissemination of digital works

Abstract

A system, business methodology and apparatus for facilitating controlled dissemination of digital works is disclosed. An audio and video organizer, entertainment, and communication unit that plays back audio and video media content received from a central storage server. The unit relies on a smartcard, which has a personalized key that unlocks encrypted content. Using the unit, a user can purchase music or other types of media using a appropriate ordering method. The central storage server then transmits a double-encrypted, compressed audio file to the unit, where it is decrypted based on the smartcard key, and available for listening.

Description

[0001] This patent application is related to and claims priority from U.S. Patent Application No. 60 / 190,268, filed Mar. 17, 2000 (Attorney Docket No. 32287-17USPL).BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION[0002] 1. Field of the Invention[0003] The present invention is directed to improvements in home entertainment systems, particularly, to a system, method and apparatus for facilitating the usage of digital works.[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art[0005] The growth of the Internet as a communication tool has been phenomenal. With the increasing usage of the Internet as a platform for business, staid industries are having to reinvent themselves to keep ahead of or keep pace with this technological wave.[0006] The music industry has had to cope with advances in technology impinging upon artists' royalties and controlled dissemination. Prior to the invention of the Internet and its rise in massive popularity, digital music was distributed in fairly traditional ways. Music was recorded ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Digital Analog Tape and the MiniDisc faced similar limitations, namely the digital audio from the source had to be converted, at some point, to an analog signal for transfer to these mechanisms.

Unfortunately, the file sizes of these songs were very large; a single song could easily require 50 megabytes of hard drive space.

At the same time, the Internet's progression and connection to millions of personal computers enabled people to share their music files with each other, although this was at first a difficult exercise since one computer would need the physical address of another computer to transfer files.

Services such as public anonymous File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites, digital bulletin board services, and client-based server programs such as Hotline, acted as conduits and repositories for this compressed music, but most of these services were underground and difficult for the average user to find, much less operate.

Since peer-to-peer file sharing basically allows for an anonymous transfer of files from one computer to another with no layer in between and, regardless of the software facilitating the service and creating the index, makes it a very simple matter to find and exchange files, the technology by its very existence aids copyright infringement by its population of users, which in turn undermines the financial incentive for artists to continue creating original works of art.

The Internet and file sharing, however, are now technologies embraced by millions and millions of users and the thought of reverting to a closed technological system of recording compact discs to analog recordings is most certainly unacceptable.

Conflicting with this methodology of sharing files are the artists and music labels who have a great interest in protecting their work from illegal copying and distribution.

The ease of copying digital works has resulted in a dilemma to copyright owners in a work, such as music encoded per MP3, i.e., how to utilize this new digital medium but maintain control over the work?

In this way, exact duplicates of downloaded media files stored in the unit are not available for widespread distribution.

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