Patent ID: 7725582

Claim:
A communications system for enabling content utilization by a first end user device in a communications network, the communications system adapted to communicate with a content distribution system or a digital rights management system, the communications system comprising: at least one network gateway that receives content from a second end user device in response to a user initiated attempt to utilize the content from the first end user device; and a computer that serves as a proxy for the first and second end user devices and that receives the content from the second end user device via the network gateway for distributing the content to the first end user device, the computer including: a format determining module that determines, from the content, whether a format of the content is supported by the first end user device; and a content utilization module that determines, from the content, whether content utilization by the first end user device is permitted, wherein the content is distributed from the computer to the first end user device without contacting the content distribution system or the digital rights management system, if the computer determines both that the format of the content is supported by the first end user device and content utilization by the first end user device is permitted.