LICENSING MEDIA CONSUMPTION USING DIGITAL CURRENCY

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for issuing licenses to allow end users to consume digital media content on a user device by responding to licensing requests by determining the number of digital tokens required to license the requested consumption and then issuing the license if the end user's account has a sufficient number of digital tokens.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of the invention in accordance with various embodiments wherein a licensing server facilitates the licensing of digital media content.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram in accordance with embodiments in which a client device includes a licensing module for communicating with a licensing server to facilitate the licensing of digital media content.

FIG. 3 illustrates a periodic approach to accumulate and/or provide digital tokens in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates an approach to accumulating and/or providing digital tokens in which an advertisement server provides directs a digital currency server to credit a user's account with digital tokens in accordance with embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method of accumulating and/or providing digital tokens in which an end user uses a digital coupon to credit his account with digital tokens in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method of accumulating and/or providing digital tokens in which an end user exchanges third party affinity points for digital tokens in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates a graphical user interface suitable for practicing the invention, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates a graphical user interface suitable for practicing the invention in which the user is provided visual feedback in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates an alternative graphical user interface suitable for practicing the invention in accordance with embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example computing system suitable for use as digital currency server, licensing server and/or a host computer hosting the game launch manager, in accordance with various embodiments.

Claims

1. A method comprising: receiving, by a licensing agent, a request for a user to consume a digital media content on a user device;determining, by the licensing agent, a number of digital tokens required to license the digital media content for the requested consumption; andissuing, by the licensing agent, a digital license to the user device if sufficient digital tokens are present in a user account associated with the user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: verifying, by the licensing agent, that the user account has a sufficient number of digital tokens to be redeemed for the requested license; anddebiting the user account by the determined number of digital tokens.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the debiting of digital tokens comprises not debiting tokens that the user paid for until all tokens that the user did not pay for are exhausted.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising reporting the debiting of tokens the user did not pay for and those the user did pay for.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the debiting of digital tokens comprises not debiting tokens that the user paid for until all tokens that the user obtained through an accrual program are exhausted, and not debiting said accrual tokens until all tokens obtained from a third party, other than through an accrual program, are exhausted.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising reporting the number of tokens debited that the user paid for, the number that the user obtained through an accrual program, and the number that the user obtained from a third party, as applicable.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the debiting is accomplished by a digital currency server and the verifying is accomplished by sending a request to the digital currency server.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the verifying comprises the licensing agent sending a request to a digital currency server to determine if sufficient tokens are in the user account.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the user device granting, to the user, access to the digital media content upon verification of the issued license, said license being valid for a period of time selected from: an indefinite period of time, a definite period of time, a period of time that the user device remains active.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the license is invalidated upon the user terminating the consumption of the digital media content.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the licensing agent is comprised of a client-side portion residing on the client device and a server-side portion residing on a separate server, the client device and separate server adapted to be communicatively coupled via a wired and/or wireless network, the client-side portion enabled to cache a quantity of digital tokens to enable the receiving, verifying, and issuing to be performed without communicating with the server-side portion of the licensing agent.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising requesting, by the client-side portion of the licensing agent, additional tokens upon determining that the client-side cache has fallen beneath a pre-determined number of tokens and the client device is currently communicatively coupled to the server-side portion of the licensing agent.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising tracking and reporting, by the client-side portion of the licensing agent, the licensing activities of the client-side portion of the licensing agent.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital media content is a selected one of: computer game content, interactive media content, video content, audio content, graphical content, and textual content.

15. A media licensing server comprising: a processor; anda mass storage device including a plurality of programming instructions designed to implement a licensing module adapted to operate the processor to: receive a request for a user to consume a digital media content on a user device;determine a number of digital tokens required to license the digital media content for the requested consumption;verify that a user account associated with the user has a sufficient number of digital tokens to redeem the license; andissue a digital license to the user device if sufficient digital tokens are present in the user account.

16. The media licensing server of claim 15 wherein the verifying includes sending a request to a digital currency server to determine if the user account has a sufficient number of digital tokens.

17. A media licensing server comprising: a processor; anda mass storage device including a plurality of programming instructions designed to implement a server-side licensing module adapted to operate the processor to:receive, from a client-side licensing module on a client device, a request for digital tokens;sending, to a digital currency server, a request to verify that a user account associated with a user contains at least the requested number of digital tokens;receiving, from the digital currency server, verification that the user account contains at least the requested number of digital tokens; andsending, to the client-side module, authorization to cache the requested number of digital tokens.

18. The media licensing server of claim 17 wherein the server-side licensing module is further adapted to record and track the transfer of digital tokens.

19. A digital currency server comprising: a processor; and a mass storage device including a database of user accounts and a plurality of programming instructions adapted to operate the processor to:receive a request, from a digital media licensing server, to verify that a user account associated with a user has at least a certain number of digital tokens; andsending to the digital media licensing server, in response, a reply indicating whether or not the user account has at least the certain number of digital tokens.

20. The digital currency server of claim 19 wherein the plurality of programming instructions are further adapted to operate the processor to debit the user account the certain number of digital tokens if at least the certain number of tokens are present in the account.

21. The digital currency server of claim 20 wherein the debiting of digital tokens comprises not debiting tokens that the user paid for until all tokens that the user did not pay for are exhausted.

22. The digital currency server of claim 20 wherein the debiting of digital tokens comprises not debiting tokens that the user paid for until all tokens that the user obtained through an accrual program are exhausted, and not debiting said accrual tokens until all tokens obtained from a third party, other than through an accrual program, are exhausted.

23. The digital currency server of claim 20 wherein the plurality of programming instructions are further adapted to operate the processor to provide an accounting of the debited tokens.

24. A client device comprising: a processor; anda mass storage device including a plurality of programming instructions adapted to operate the processor to:send a request, to a digital media licensing module, a request for a digital license to consume, by a user, digital media content;receive, in response, the requested digital license if the digital media licensing module determines that a user account associated with the user has a sufficient number of digital tokens to be redeemed for a license to consume the digital media content; andgrant, to the user, upon receipt of the digital license, permission to consume the requested digital media content.

25. The client device of claim 24 wherein the digital media licensing module contains a client-side portion residing on the client device and implemented by another plurality of programming instructions and adapted to operate the processor to communicate with a server-side portion residing on a licensing server, said client-side portion also adapted to respond to requests for digital media licenses.

26. The client device of claim 25 wherein the client-side portion is further adapted to operate the processor to debit the number of digital tokens required to license the requested media from a local cache of digital tokens.

27. The client device of claim 25 wherein the client-side portion of the digital media licensing module is further adapted to operate the processor to: request, via a wireless and/or wired network, from the server-side portion of the digital media licensing module, authorization to cache a certain number of digital tokens on the client device; andreceive, in response, authorization from the server-side portion to cache the requested number of digital tokens.

28. The client device of claim 25 wherein the requesting of the digital tokens occurs when the client-side module determines that a current quantity of cached tokens is smaller than a pre-determined number.