Patent ID: 7818261

Claim:
A method for managing the use of content over a network, comprising: storing at least one of a source digital fingerprint or a source identifier that corresponds to each of a plurality of items of source content, wherein at least one use of a copy of each source content item is licensable; determining, by a processor, if another identifier included with an item of content is received from a user indicating at least one particular type of use indicated by the user for the item of content, and has an affirmative correspondence to at least one of the stored source identifiers associated with each source content item; if the determination of the other identifier is negative, determining if another digital fingerprint determined for the received content item is substantially similar to at least one of the source digital fingerprints associated with each source content item; determining, by a processor, each license previously provided for a user that corresponds to the received content item based on the affirmative correspondence between at least one of the source identifiers and the other identifier or a substantially similar comparison between the source digital fingerprints and the other digital fingerprint; and if a license for the user for the at least one particular type of indicated use for the received content item is determined to be unavailable, determining at least one other source content item that is non-identical to the received content item and that is both substantially equivalent to the received content item and available for licensing for at the least one particular type of indicated use by the user, wherein the determination of the at least one other source content item is based on at least the affirmative correspondence.