Patent ID: 7395339

Claim:
A method of streaming media from an on-demand media streaming server to an authenticated client device, comprising: establishing a private communication link from a media library storage device storing media of a user of a client device to the client device by authenticating both the client device and the user of the client device to form an authenticated client device and an authenticated user, such that only the authenticated user using the authenticated client device is enabled to access media content via the on-demand media streaming server; receiving a request from the authenticated client device by the authenticated user for media content; and in response to the request for media content from the authenticated client device by the authenticated user, streaming the requested media content from the media library storage device to the authenticated client device, the method further comprising: writing a data structure to a removable media, wherein the data structure is stored in the on-demand media streaming server and is associated with at least one portion of a set of media in the media library storage device, wherein establishing a private communication link from the media library storage device storing media of the user of the client device to the client device includes: requesting a data structure from a removable media stored in a removable media reader associated with the client device; comparing the data structure stored in the removable media to the data structure stored in the on-demand media streaming server; and enabling access to the media in the media library storage device only in response to the data structure stored in the removable media matching the data structure stored in the on-demand media streaming server; and wherein the removable medium is one of a smart card, a floppy disk, a USB drive, a memory stick, and a compact flash memory.