Patent ID: 7788686

Claim:
A live content information system, comprising: an Internet server coupled to the Internet; a registration module that: registers a plurality of Internet broadcast events in response to corresponding registration requests received via the Internet through the Internet server from one or more content providers; issues registration information for the plurality of Internet broadcast events to the one or more content providers, wherein the registration information includes information indicating an Internet source location of a first of the plurality of Internet broadcast events from which a browser on a client computer system can directly access the first Internet broadcast event via the Internet, wherein the Internet source location is remote with respect to the live content information system, and wherein the live content information system is remote with respect to the client computer system; manages information relating to ownership of live content corresponding to the first Internet broadcast event; and manages levels of access to change one or both of the live content and information associated with the live content; a tracking module that checks for a change in status of the first Internet broadcast event, and in response to the change in status of the first Internet broadcast event communicates the change in status to one or more parties; and a sponsorship module that provides information about the plurality of Internet broadcast events to facilitate matching of one or more sponsors with at least one of the one or more content providers, wherein the information about the plurality of Internet broadcast events is received from the one or more content providers; wherein the live content information system: uses a vocabulary that includes characteristics received from the one or more content providers, wherein the received characteristics describe: technical characteristics of the live content, one or both of a start time and a stop time of the live content, and information indicating that the live content is broadcast live, wherein the technical characteristics of the live content include information describing the file format of the live content; and provides guide information through the Internet server to the browser of the client computer system, wherein the provided guide information is displayable via the browser of the client computer system to identify two or more of the plurality of Internet broadcast events and to indicate that at least the first Internet broadcast event is currently being broadcast live via the Internet and wherein the provided guide information is usable by the browser of the client computer system to access the first Internet broadcast event directly from its Internet source location.