Content insurance

Abstract

The present invention provides for the protection of and ability to upgrade to new formats of digital content by providing consumers of the digital content the capability of purchasing content insurance on digital content they consume. By purchasing insurance on content, at a later time consumers are able to return to the content distribution channels and re-obtain the previously purchased content in the same, or new format as the original purchased.

1 . A method of providing content insurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replace said digital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content, said method comprising:
 receiving a request from said consumer to purchase said content insurance on digital data representative of specified digital content;   storing information uniquely identifying said consumer and specified digital content for which said content insurance is purchased;   receiving a request from said consumer to retrieve digital data representative of specified digital content;   determining if said requested specified digital content is the same as said specified digital content for which content insurance was purchased, said determination made utilizing said stored information, and   wherein, when said requested specified digital content is the same as said specified digital content for which said content insurance was purchased, said consumer is allowed to retrieve said requested digital data of specified digital content.   
   
   
       2 . A method of providing content insurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replace said digital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content, as per  claim 1 , wherein said request to purchase said content insurance is received when said consumer purchases said specified digital content. 
   
   
       3 . A method of providing content insurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replace said digital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content, as per  claim 1 , wherein said request to purchase said content insurance is received at a time different than when said consumer purchases said specified digital content. 
   
   
       4 . A method of providing content insurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replace said digital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content, as per  claim 3 , said method further comprising:
 receiving a list of digital content purchased by said consumer, and   preventing said consumer from purchasing insurance on digital content not contained within said list.   
   
   
       5 . A method of providing content insurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replace said digital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content, as per  claim 4 , wherein said list is generated by client software located at said consumer. 
   
   
       6 . A method of providing content insurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replace said digital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content, as per  claim 5 , wherein said client software allows manipulation of purchased digital content encrypted utilizing personalized encryption. 
   
   
       7 . A method of providing content insurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replace said digital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content, as per  claim 3 , said method further comprising:
 generating a voucher for said requested digital data representative of specified digital content, said voucher allowing said consumer to retrieve said requested digital data of specified digital content.   
   
   
       8 . A method of providing content insurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replace said digital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content, as per  claim 1 , wherein requested digital data representative of specified digital content is in a different format than that originally purchased. 
   
   
       9 . An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable code embodied thereon which provides content insurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digital content and allowing said consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replacing said digital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content, said computer program code comprising:
 computer readable program code receiving a request from said consumer to purchase said content insurance on digital data representative of specified digital content;   computer readable program code storing information uniquely identifying said consumer and specified digital content for which said content insurance is purchased;   computer readable program code receiving a request from said consumer to retrieve digital data representative of specified digital content;   computer program code determining if said requested digital data representative of specified digital content is said digital data of specified digital content for which said content insurance was purchased, said determination made utilizing said stored information, and   computer program code allowing said consumer to retrieve said requested digital data of specified digital content when said requested digital data representative of specified digital content is said digital data of specified digital content for which said content insurance was purchased.