US 6,256,554 · Granted 2001-07-03

The 2001 Patent for Renting Music and Movies From Your Own Room

Imagine a system where your house has a central library of movies and songs that every room can access, kind of like Netflix but built into your walls. You can try things for free before paying, and everything you watch or listen to gets tracked and billed automatically from a main control center.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a distributed media system where individual rooms contain their own stored content (CDs, cassettes, mini discs) while a central hub manages access-only media that all rooms can reach. What's protected here is the architecture where usage is monitored centrally, free trial periods are enforced before charges kick in, and both acquisition media (stuff you own) and access-only media (stuff you're borrowing) coexist in the same network.

Why it matters

Filed in 1999 and granted in 2001, this patent tried to lock down the infrastructure for in-home entertainment distribution at a moment when streaming didn't exist yet and cable companies were still figuring out video-on-demand. The core idea of centralizing billing and tracking while letting multiple rooms access the same content pool anticipated how modern household media systems would eventually work, though the specifics here relied on physical media rather than internet delivery.

Real-world use

When a family in the early 2000s pressed play on a song or movie available in their living room, bedroom, or kitchen, unseen sensors logged that activity and sent it back to a billing center.

Original USPTO abstract

A plurality of acquisition media is stored at each of a plurality of in-room systems. A plurality of access-only media is stored at a single head-end system. Each in-room system has access to each of the access-only media. Access to and acquisition of media are recorded at the head-end system and any associated charges for the access and/or acquisition are determined at the head-end system. A free check-out time prior to being charged for an acquisition of media and a free sample time prior to being charged for access to a media are provided. The acquisition media includes devices for storing audio data, such as CDs, DATs, mini discs and cassettes. The access-only media comprises audio data stored on a CD and/or an audio card have memory. The acquisition media may also include devices for storing audio/video data while the access-only media comprises audio/video data.

Patent details

Publication number: US 6,256,554
Filing date: 1999-04-14
Grant date: 2001-07-03
Assignee: Dilorenzo Mark
Inventor(s): DILORENZO MARK
CPC class: H04N7/17318

View original record on Google Patents →

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