System and method for delivering geographically restricted content, such as over-air broadcast programming, to a recipient over a network, namely the internet

Abstract

A system and method for delivering geographically restricted content, including but not limited to over-air broadcast programming, to a recipient over a computer network, namely the Internet. The content is only delivered over the computer network if the recipient's computer or network device requesting the content over the network is verified to be located in the geographically restricted area. A conventional tuner is employed by the recipient's computer to receive one or more over-air signals having a broadcast range deemed to be synonymous with the geographically restricted area for the requested content. If the tuner is able to receive such over-air signal(s), the requested content is delivered over the network to the recipient's computer. This is because the recipient is known to be physically located in the geographically restricted area by the ability of the tuner to receive the over-air signal(s).

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of delivering geographically restricted content over a network to a recipient device in response to a content server coupled to the network receiving a request for the geographically restricted content, comprising:
 receiving a request for delivery of geographically restricted content from a recipient device over a network at a content server, the geographically restricted content restricted to a geographically restricted area defined by a range of at least one antenna;   periodically receiving signal acquisition information from the recipient device indicative of a physical location of the recipient device;   determining if the signal acquisition information indicates that the recipient device is located within the geographically restricted area; and   wherein the received signal acquisition information comprises a signal containing embedded information to be extracted for determining whether the recipient device is located within the geographically restricted area; and   delivering the requested geographically restricted content to the recipient device over the network only if it is determined that the signal acquisition information indicates that the recipient device is located within the geographically restricted area.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one antenna is a plurality of antennas, the geographically restricted area defined by the ranges of the plurality of antennas. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining if the signal acquisition information indicates that the recipient device is located within the geographically restricted area comprises determining that the recipient device is located within the range of one of the at least one antenna. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the recipient device is comprised from the group consisting of a personal computer, a network device, a television set top box, a mobile device, a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a personal messaging device (PMD). 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the content server is comprised from the group consisting of a broadcast station server, a corporate server, an audio server, a video server, an audio/video server, and a music server. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the network is a network comprised from the group consisting of a TCP/IP-based network, a dedicated line network, a public network, a private network, a communications network, and a public switched telephone network (PSTN). 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining if the signal acquisition information indicates that the recipient device is located within the geographically restricted area comprises determining if the signal acquisition information indicates that the recipient device is receiving an over-air wireless signal from at least a subset of the at least one antenna. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the network comprises a wireless network comprising the at least one antenna. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein delivering the geographically restricted content comprises broadcasting a digital content signal containing the geographically restricted content from at least a subset of the at least one antenna. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein broadcasting the digital content signal comprises embedding the digital content signal into an over-air broadcast signal. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein determining if the signal acquisition information indicates that the recipient device is located within the geographically restricted area comprises determining if the signal acquisition information indicates that the recipient device is receiving an over-air broadcast signal. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein broadcasting the digital content signal comprises embedding the digital signal into the over-air broadcast signal. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the geographically restricted content is comprised from the group consisting of broadcast programming, audio programming, songs, video programming, datacast, and video presentations. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein delivering the requested geographically restricted content comprises streaming the requested geographically restricted content to the recipient device over the network until a connection between the recipient device and the content server is terminated. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising setting a flag indicating that the recipient device is authorized to receive the requested geographically restricted content over the network if it is determined that the recipient device is located in the geographically restricted area for the requested geographically restricted content. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining if a user account has been previously established on the content server for the recipient device after receiving the request for the delivery of the geographically restricted content from the recipient device over the network at the content server, and before delivering the requested geographically restricted content to the recipient device over the network if the GPS coordinates indicate a location within the geographically restricted area for the requested geographically restricted content. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising establishing a connection between the content server and the recipient device before receiving the request for the delivery of the geographically restricted content from the recipient device over the network at the content server. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the network comprises a wireless downlink channel and an uplink channel separate from the wireless downlink channel. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the wireless downlink channel is provided in an over-air broadcast signal, and the uplink channel is provided in an internet-protocol (IP) network. 
     
     
         20 . A system for delivering geographically restricted content over a network to a recipient device, comprising:
 a content server;   wherein the content server is configured to:
 receive a request for delivery of geographically restricted content from a recipient device over a network at a content server, the geographically restricted content restricted to a geographically restricted area defined by a range of at least one antenna; 
 periodically receive signal acquisition information from the recipient device indicative of a physical location of the recipient device; 
 determine if the signal acquisition information indicates that the recipient device is located within the geographically restricted area; 
 wherein the received signal acquisition information comprises a signal containing embedded information to be extracted for determining whether the recipient device is located within the geographically restricted area; and 
 delivering the requested geographically restricted content to the recipient device over the network only if it is determined that the signal acquisition information indicates that the recipient device is located within the geographically restricted area.