System for controlling the distribution and use of digital works having a fee reporting mechanism

Claim 1

A system for controlling the distribution and use of digital works having a mechanism for reporting fees based on the distribution and use of digital works, said system comprising: means for attaching usage rights to a digital work, each of said usage rights specifying how a digital work may be used or distributed, each of said usage rights specifying usage fee information, said usage fee information comprising a fee type and fee parameters which define a fee to be paid in connection with the exercise of said usage right; a communication medium for coupling repositories to enable communication between repositories; and a plurality of repositories, each of said repositories comprising: an external interface for removably coupling to said communications medium; storage means for storing digital works having attached usage rights and fees; requesting means for generating a request to access a digital work stored in another of said plurality of repositories, said request indicating a particular usage right; and processing means for processing requests to access digital works stored in said storage means and for generating fee transactions when a request indicates a usage right that is attached to a digital work and said usage right specifies usage fee information; each of said plurality of repositories being removably coupled to a credit server, said credit server being arranged for recording fee transactions from said repository and subsequently reporting said fee transactions to a billing clearinghouse.

Claim 3

A method for reporting fees associated with the distribution and use of digital works in a system for controlling the distribution and use of digital works, said method comprising the steps of: a) attaching one or more usage rights to a digital work, each of said one or more usage rights comprising an indicator of how said digital work may be distributed or used and a usage fee to be paid upon exercise of said right; b) storing said digital work and attached one or more usage rights in a server repository, said server repository controlling access to said digital work; c) said server repository receiving a request to access said digital work from a requesting repository; d) said server repository identifying a usage right associated with said access request; e) said server repository determining if said identified usage right is the same as one of said one or more usage rights attached to said digital work; f) if said identified usage right is not the same as any one of said one or more usage rights attached to said digital work, said server repository denying access to said digital work; g) if said usage right is included with said digital work, said server repository determining if a usage fee is associated with the exercise of said usage right; h) if a usage fee is associated with usage right, said server repository calculating said usage fee; i) said server repository transmitting a first assign fee transaction identifying said requesting repository as a payer for said usage fee to a first credit server; j) said requesting repository transmitting a second assign fee transaction identifying said requesting repository as a payer for said usage fee to a second credit server; k) said server repository transmitting said digital work to said requesting repository; I) said server repository transmitting a first confirm fee transaction to said first credit server; and m) said requesting repository transmitting a second confirm fee transaction to said second credit server.

Claim 5

A method for reporting fees associated with the distribution and use of digital works in a system for controlling the distribution and use of digital works, said method comprising the steps of: a) attaching one or more usage rights to a digital work, each of said one or more usage rights comprising an indicator of how said digital work may be distributed or used and a usage fee to be paid for exercise of said right; b) storing said digital work and said attached one or more usage rights in a server repository, said server repository controlling access to said digital work; c) said server repository receiving a request to access said digital work from a requesting repository; d) said server repository identifying a usage right associated with said access request; e) said server repository determining if said digital work has attached thereto said identified usage right; f) if said identified usage right is not attached to said digital work, said server repository denying access to said digital work; g) if said usage right is attached to said digital work, said server repository determining if a usage fee is associated with the exercise of said usage right; h) if a usage fee is associated with said usage right, said server repository determining a fee type; i) said server repository transmitting a first fee transaction identifying said requesting repository as a payee for said usage fee to a credit server, said first fee transaction being dependent on said determined fee type; and k) said server repository transmitting said digital work to said requesting repository.

Claim 6

A system for controlling the distribution and utilization of digital works having a mechanism for reporting usage fees, said system comprising: digital works comprising a first part for storing the digitally encoded data corresponding to a digital work and a second part for storing usage rights and fees for said digital work, said usage rights specifying how a digital work may be used or distributed and said usage fees specifying a fee to be paid in connection with the exercise of a corresponding usage right; a plurality of repositories, each of said repositories comprising: communication means for communicating with another of said plurality of repositories; storage means for storing digital works; requesting means for generating a request to access a digital work stored in another of said plurality of repositories, said request indicating a particular usage right; processing means for processing requests to access digital works stored in said storage means and granting access when said particular usage right corresponds to a stored usage right stored in said digital work, said processing means generating fee transactions when said access is granted and said stored usage right specifies a fee; each of said plurality of repositories being removably coupled to a credit server, said credit server being arranged for recording fee transactions from said repository and subsequently reporting said fee transactions to a billing clearinghouse.

Claim 8

A method for reporting fees associated with use of rendering digital works by a rendering device in a system for controlling the rendering of digital works by a rendering system, said rendering system comprised of a rendering repository and a rendering device, said rendering device utilizing a rendering digital work for rendering a digital work, said method comprising the steps of: a) storing a first digital work in a server repository, said digital work specifying a first usage fee to be reported for a use of said first digital work; b) storing a rendering digital work in said rendering repository, said first rendering digital work specifying a second usage fee to be reported for a use of said rendering digital work; c) said server repository receiving a request to use said first digital work from said rendering repository; d) said server repository determining if said request may be granted; e) if said server repository determines that said request may not be granted, said server repository denying access to said first digital work; f) if said server repository determines that said request may be granted, said server repository transmitting said digital work to said rendering repository; g) said server repository transmitting a first fee transaction identifying said rendering repository as a payee for said first usage fee for use of said first digital work to a first credit server; h) said rendering device rendering said first digital work using said rendering digital work; and i) said rendering repository transmitting a second fee transaction identifying said rendering repository as a payee for said second usage fee for use of said rendering digital work to a second credit server.