Variable Length Media Clip Creation with Rights Enforcement

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Consumers face challenges in creating media clips from various sources while ensuring the rights of content owners are protected, as existing systems lack effective methods to regulate clipping and distribution.

Innovation Solution

A system comprising a media player, a clipping rights server, and a media distribution server that obtains and enforces rules for creating and distributing variable-length media clips, ensuring compliance with content owner rights by limiting clip length, quality, and distribution parameters.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If consumers are allowed to create and share media clips freely, then consumer flexibility and media sharing capability are improved, but content owner rights protection deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemedia clipping flexibilityVSAvoidcontent rights protection

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

A rights management server acts as an intermediary between consumers and content owners. The server receives clipping requests, enforces content owner rules and policies, and only allows clip creation and sharing if compliance is verified. This mediator resolves the contradiction by enabling consumer flexibility while ensuring rights protection through centralized rule enforcement.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback mechanisms where the rights management server communicates clipping rules, restrictions, and compliance status back to the media player and consumer. This feedback loop ensures that consumers are informed of their clipping capabilities and that rights protection requirements are continuously enforced, balancing flexibility with protection.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If strict rules are enforced for media clipping to protect content owner rights, then content rights protection is improved, but consumer flexibility and ease of operation deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent rights protectionVSAvoidclip creation simplicity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The media player automatically retrieves clipping rules from the rights management server and enforces them locally without requiring manual consumer input. The system self-manages compliance by automatically adjusting clipping parameters, watermarks, and distribution restrictions based on received rules, simplifying operation while maintaining strict rights protection.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

Clipping rules, restrictions, and requirements are obtained and configured in advance by the rights management server before the consumer creates any clips. This preliminary setup ensures that when consumers create clips, the protection mechanisms are already in place, eliminating the need for complex real-time decisions while maintaining strong rights enforcement.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Adaptability or versatility

If variable length clips are allowed to improve consumer flexibility, then media sharing adaptability is improved, but complexity of rule management increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveclip length flexibilityVSAvoidrule management complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The rights management server provides a universal platform that handles all aspects of variable length clip management through a single set of rules and policies. Instead of requiring separate management systems for different clip types or lengths, the server universally applies configurable rules to all clipping operations, simplifying rule management while supporting diverse clip formats and durations.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS11665407B2Systems and methods for creating variable length clips from a media stream

Publication Date: 2023.05.30 SLING MEDIA INC

AI summary

Systems and methods are described for providing variable-length media clips based upon a received media stream. An exemplary system for providing media clips to users includes a database comprising a list of rules associated with a plurality of programs, as well as a first server and a second server. The first server receives information about a particular program being viewed by a media player and obtains rules from the database for the identified program that are transmitted to the media player. The second server receives a media clip of the particular program being viewed from the media player, wherein the media clip is created at the media player in accordance with the rules corresponding to the program, and subsequently makes the media clip available to the users.