Patent ID: 7984463

Claim:
A method for providing a selected stored program to a user for playback, the selected stored program being one of a plurality of stored programs stored in a data store and provided as part of on-demand programming offered by a program provider, wherein the user has an entitlement relationship with the program provider authorizing the user to access only some of the plurality of stored programs provided as part of the on-demand programming, the method comprising steps of: receiving a temporal manipulation request from the user comprising a request to temporally manipulate the selected stored program as the selected stored program is being viewed by the user; initiating an authorization process as a result of receiving the temporal manipulation request, wherein the authorization process is performed unilaterally by the program provider to determine whether the user is authorized to temporally manipulate the selected stored program as a function of the entitlement relationship between the user and the program provider, and further wherein the authorization process includes interactions performed remotely to a location of the user; allowing the user to temporally manipulate the selected stored program according to the temporal manipulation request prior to completion of the authorization process; and when the program provider determines that the user is not authorized to temporally manipulate the selected stored program through the authorization process, preventing further temporal manipulation of a remaining portion of the selected stored program.