Patent ID: 7386480

Claim:
A method for allowing access to digital goods, the method comprising: delivering a local storage device to a subscriber, wherein the local storage device is a discrete physical unit that directly couples to a client computer through a non-network connection, and wherein the local storage device comprises a library of digital goods previously stored therein; receiving, at a remote server via a communications network, a request to access the library of digital goods from the subscriber using the client computer; authenticating, by the remote server, the identity of said subscriber attempting to access said library of digital goods; receiving, at the remote server via said communications network, a search criteria from said subscriber, said criteria indicative of digital goods of interest to said subscriber from said library; displaying a list of digital file identifiers responsive to said criteria; granting access by the remote server to those digital goods for which the subscriber is entitled to have access; providing, by the remote server, one of said list of file identifiers to an application player located on the client computer in response to an input from said subscriber, wherein said application player resolves said one of said list of file identifiers into a file pointer to a corresponding digital goods file previously-stored on the local storage device; and conveying the corresponding digital goods file from the local storage device to the client computer via the non-network connection.