Abstract:
Embodiments of the invention provide a method, comprising hosting content on behalf of content owners who own the content; enabling content sharers to share the content through the creation of links to the content; generating revenue through the use of the content; and sharing said revenue with the content owners and the content sharers.

Description:
[0001]    This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/883,921 filed Jan. 8, 2007, the specification of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     FIELD 
       [0002]    Embodiments of the present invention relate to the monetization of content. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    As used herein the term “content” refers broadly to any form of digital content capable of being shared via the Internet. Common forms of content currently shared via the Internet include digital photographs (images) and videos. Content may be created by professionals or by non-professionals. Content created by professionals will be referred to as Professional-Generated Content (PGC), whereas content generated by non-professionals will be referred to as User-Generated Content (UGC). 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    Embodiments of the invention provide a method, comprising hosting content on behalf of content owners who own the content; enabling content sharers to share the content through the creation of links to the content; generating revenue through the use of the content; and sharing said revenue with the content owners and the content sharers. 
         [0005]    Other aspects of the invention will be apparent from the detailed description below. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
         [0006]      FIG. 1  shows high-level block diagram of a Content Hosting and Distribution Platform (CHDP), in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; and 
           [0007]      FIG. 2  shows a block diagram of hardware that may be used to implement the CHDP of  FIG. 1 , in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0008]    In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention can be practiced without these specific details. 
         [0009]    Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some embodiments but not other embodiments. 
         [0010]    Broadly, embodiments of the present invention disclose a Content Hosting and Distribution Platform (CHDP) and a revenue sharing method. Users are able to upload content in the form of either Professional-Generated Content (PGC) or User-Generated Content (UGC) to the CHDP. The CHDP may comprise an advertisement server that serves or places an advertisement to be viewed in conjunction with the content when the content is rendered on a computer of a viewer. Advertisement revenue generated from the advertisement placement is advantageously shared with the content creator. Additionally, in some embodiments, the advertisement revenue is also shared with users who enable the distribution of the content thorough sharing. 
         [0011]    Referring now to  FIG. 1  of the drawings, there is shown high-level block diagram of a CHDP  10 , in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. The CHDP may architected in a variety of ways and may include a single server or several servers. Hardware that may be used to implement the CHDP  10 , in accordance with one embodiment is shown in  FIG. 2  of the drawings. 
         [0012]    The CHDP  10  includes functionality to host and distribute content in accordance with the techniques disclosed herein, and as part of a sharing service. As will be seen, the CHDP  10  includes a registration module  12  whereby users can register for the sharing service. In one embodiment, upon registration users are assigned authentication credentials such as a username and password whereby users may log into the sharing service via user devices  14  (only one of which has been shown in  FIG. 1 ). The user devices  14  represent any device by which users can communicate with the CHDP  10  via a communications network  16 . As such the user devices  14  may include personal computers (PCs), notebook computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), pocket PCs, smartphones, two-way pagers, etc. The communications network  16  may be a Wide Area Network (WAN) such as the Internet, and in some embodiments may include a mobile communications network such a cellular network. In one embodiment the user devices  14  include a User Agent (UA)  16  e.g. in the form of a web browser whereby the user device  14  is able download and view content from the CHDP  10 . 
         [0013]    The CHDP  10  includes user data  30  comprising information associated with each registered user. Such information may include the user&#39;s authentication information as well as profile information that may be used to find suitable content for the user. The CHDP also includes a content repository  22  for storing content to be shared. The content may include various types of digital content such as photographs, videos, music, information for blogs, etc. In one embodiment, the content may be created by a registered user and may comprise UGC or PGC. Advertisements to be served or placed with content from the content repository are stored in an advertisement store  24 . In one embodiment, the content in the content repository is uploaded from the user devices  14  via the communications network  16 . 
         [0014]    The CHDP  10  also includes a sharing engine  26  that implements logic to facilitate the sharing of content in the content repository  22 . In one embodiment, the sharing engine  26  may locate suitable content for a user from the content repository  22 . The content may be located based on a parameters received from the user. Such parameters may comprise keywords input by the user. In some embodiments, the content may be located based on profile information such as the users particular interests stored as part of the user data  20 . 
         [0015]    In one embodiment, the sharing engine  26  may allow a user to share content with a third party. In such cases, the sharing engine may compose a link that is then sent to the third party. The link may be delivered via email or via a SMS message to the third party. The third party may be a registered user of the sharing service, but this need not be the case. 
         [0016]    Once the third party receives the link, the link may be used by the third party to download and view the content associated with the link, In this manner the sharing of content is facilitated. 
         [0017]    In some embodiments, links to share content may be placed on third party websites. Such links may be accessed through the third party websites in order to access the content associated with the links. 
         [0018]    Each link generated by the sharing engine  26  is tied to the particular user that caused the link to be created. For example, in one embodiment, a unique identifier associated with the particular user is included with the link (e.g. with a URL defining the link). Thus, when the link is used to retrieve the content associated therewith the CHDP  10  is able to determine that user that shared the link. 
         [0019]    It will be appreciated that through the mechanism of the sharing engine  26 , links to content in the content repository  22  may be created and shared in an almost viral-like fashion. 
         [0020]    In one embodiment, the CHDP  10  also includes an advertisement server  28 . The advertisement server  28  includes logic to find relevant advertisements from the advertisement store  24  to serve with the content. Various techniques may be used to find relevant advertisements. For example, in one embodiment, content in the content repository  22  may be tagged with keyword descriptive of the content or descriptive of products and services relevant to the content based on the likely consumer of the content. The tags may be created by the users of the system or the operators of the sharing service. The advertisements in the advertisement store  24  may comprise associated tags or keywords to help determine the relevant content with which to serve the advertisements. These associated tags may be created by the advertisers themselves. As such, embodiments of the advertisement server  28  also include functionality for advertisers to create and tag advertisements. 
         [0021]    When a request for content (in the form of a link to content in the content repository  22 ) is received, the advertisement server finds a relevant advertisement from the advertisement store  24  and serves this relevant advertisement together with the content identified in the link to the user device  14  from which was received. The relevant advertisement may be embedded in the content or it may be played before or after the content. Each time an advertisement is served by the advertisement server  28  the advertiser associated with the advertisement is charged in accordance with an agreement between the operators of the sharing service and the advertiser. 
         [0022]    In one embodiment, the CHDP  10  also includes a revenue sharing engine  30 . This component includes functionality to determine the users associated with a link with whom to share advertising revenue, and functionality to compute the amount of the advertising revenue to share. 
         [0023]    Content that is served with advertisements are referred to as “ad-funded” content. In some embodiments, advertisements are not delivered with content. This type of content is termed “pay-for-use” content as users are charged an amount before the content can be accessed. 
         [0024]    In accordance with the revenue sharing method disclosed herein, the users with whom advertising revenue is shared include the owner of the content with which advertisements were delivered and the chain of users who shared links to the content with others. In one embodiment of the revenue sharing method, the content owner gets a percentage of the money generated from the content. For example, an owner of content may get 40% of the money generated from the content of it is ad-funded and 60% of the money generated from the content if it is “pay-for-use” content. For content that is shared through the creation of links to the content as described above, each registered user who creates a link for sharing the content (hereinafter the “content sharer”) is compensated as follows: when content is re-shared the previous content sharer gets 5% of the revenue generated from the content for a predefined number, say 4, levels of sharing. In one embodiment a designated charity is given 5% of the revenue from shared content. The designated charity may be designated by the owner of the content or by the operators of the sharing service. To discourage piracy, pirated content does not earn revenue through the model described. 
         [0025]      FIG. 2  of the drawings shows an example of hardware  40  that may be used to implement the user device  14  or the CHDP  10 , in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. The hardware  40  typically includes at least one processor  402  coupled to a memory  44 . The processor  42  may represent one or more processors (e.g., microprocessors), and the memory  44  may represent random access memory (RAM) devices comprising a main storage of the hardware  40 , as well as any supplemental levels of memory e.g., cache memories, non-volatile or back-up memories (e.g. programmable or flash memories), read-only memories, etc. In addition, the memory  44  may be considered to include memory storage physically located elsewhere in the hardware  40 , e.g. any cache memory in the processor  42 , as well as any storage capacity used as a virtual memory, e.g., as stored on a mass storage device  50 . 
         [0026]    The hardware  40  also typically receives a number of inputs and outputs for communicating information externally. For interface with a user or operator, the hardware  40  may include one or more user input devices  46  (e.g., a keyboard, a mouse, etc.) and a display  48  (e.g., a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panel). 
         [0027]    For additional storage, the hardware  40  may also include one or more mass storage devices  50 , e.g., a floppy or other removable disk drive, a hard disk drive, a Direct Access Storage Device (DASD), an optical drive (e.g. a Compact Disk (CD) drive, a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) drive, etc.) and/or a tape drive, among others. Furthermore, the hardware  50  may include an interface with one or more networks  52  (e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless network, and/or the Internet among others) to permit the communication of information with other computers coupled to the networks. It should be appreciated that the hardware  40  typically includes suitable analog and/or digital interfaces between the processor  42  and each of the components  44 ,  46 ,  48  and  52  as is well known in the art. 
         [0028]    The hardware  40  operates under the control of an operating system  54 , and executes various computer software applications, components, programs, objects, modules, etc. indicated collectively by reference numeral  56  to perform the above-described operations of the user device  14  or the CHDP  10 . In the case of the server  10  various applications, components, programs, objects, etc. may also execute on one or more processors in another computer coupled to the hardware  40  via a network  52 , e.g. in a distributed computing environment, whereby the processing required to implement the functions of a computer program may be allocated to multiple computers over a network. 
         [0029]    In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of the invention, may be implemented as part of an operating system or a specific application, component, program, object, module or sequence of instructions referred to as “computer programs.” The computer programs typically comprise one or more instructions set at various times in various memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when read and executed by one or more processors in a computer, cause the computer to perform operations necessary to execute elements involving the various aspects of the invention. Moreover, while the invention has been described in the context of fully functioning computers and computer systems, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various embodiments of the invention are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that the invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of machine or computer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution. Examples of computer-readable media include but are not limited to recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memory devices, floppy and other removable disks, hard disk drives, optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks, (DVDs), etc.), among others, and transmission type media such as digital and analog communication links. 
         [0030]    Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments, it will be evident that the various modification and changes can be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than in a restrictive sense.