Patent ID: 9319725
Filing Date: 2016-04-19
CPC Classification: H04L,H04N

Claim Text:
1. A method executable by a server to allow users of client devices to obtain requested content via a network, the method comprising: receiving, at the server, a list of local content available from each of a plurality of placeshifting systems via the network, wherein each of the plurality of placeshifting systems is a user-operated placeshifting device associated with one of the users that receives the local content from broadcast programming that is locally available to that user-operated placeshifting device and that encodes the received local content from a broadcast format to a streaming format that is transmittable on the network; maintaining, by the server, a database of the local content available at each of the plurality of user-operated placeshifting devices; receiving a request for the requested content from a user of a client device at the server via the network, wherein the requested content corresponds to broadcasting content that is locally available in some locations but not in others; identifying, from the database, one of the user-operated placeshifting devices having access to the locally-available broadcast content that corresponds to the requested content; and facilitating a connection between the client device and the identified user-operated placeshifting device to thereby allow the client device to obtain the requested content in the streaming format directly from the identified user-operated placeshifting device via the network.