Patent ID: 6980971

Claim:
A system for distributing copyrighted works and managing payments owed as a result of the distributing to the owners of the copyrights in the copyrighted works, said system comprising: a server located at a distribution facility adapted to distribute said copyrighted works through a first transmission system, the copyrighted works being enciphered, comprising musical pieces and being distributed as first digital data packets multiplexed with a broadcasted television program related to the copyrighted works comprising second digital data packets; a receiving facility in communication with the transmission system adapted to receive from the server the first and second digital data packets, the receiving facility comprising a packet selector in communication with a first memory and a monitor, the packet selector receiving the first and second digital data packets and selecting the first digital data packets for transmission to the first memory for storage and selecting the second digital data packets for transmission to the monitor for displaying the television program; a communication interface at said distribution facility adapted to receive through a second transmission system a purchasing record identifying selected copyrighted works distributed from the distribution facility and selected by the receiving facility for downloading at the receiving facility and storing in the first memory, said purchasing record being stored in a second memory at the time of said downloading and transmitted to said communication interface after said downloading, said second memory being associated with said receiving facility and also storing, in advance of said selecting of said selected copyrighted works by said receiving facility, authorization data for authorizing the downloading of said selected copyrighted works; a third memory associated with said server adapted to store copyright information corresponding to each of said distributed copyrighted works, said copyright information providing the identity of the distributed copyrighted works, the identity of the owners of the copyrights for the distributed copyrighted works, data relating to the costs for downloading the distributed copyrighted works by said receiving facility and the identity of the broadcasted television program; a processor associated with said server, in communication with said third memory, adapted to calculate, based upon said purchasing record and said copyright information, a copyright payment due each owner of the copyrights for the selected copyrighted works.