Patent ID: 8645375

Claim:
A method for use in controlling information about a data storage system returned to an end user, the method comprising: sending a first set of information from a first recipient location included in a hierarchy to a second recipient location included in the hierarchy, wherein the hierarchy includes the first recipient location that is a website of a vendor of a data storage system, the second recipient location that is a website of a distributor of the data storage system, a third recipient location that is a website of a value added reseller providing any of additional hardware and additional software for use with the data storage system, and a fourth recipient location that is a network location of a component used by an end-user to manage the data storage system, wherein the first set of information includes a first plurality of services of the first recipient location, the first plurality of services including electronic commerce services, support services and user communities related to storage devices provided by a vendor associated with the first recipient location, said first set of information including first information related to storage devices sold by the vendor associated with the first recipient location; at said second recipient location of the distributor, not applying any control criteria to the first set of information whereby all of the first set of information is allowed to pass unmodified from the second recipient location to the third recipient location of the value added reseller; at said third recipient location, producing a second set of information using the first set of information and using information control criteria of said third recipient location, wherein said producing the second set of information includes applying the information control criteria of the third recipient location to the first set of information to selectively perform any of modify, filter and add information with respect to the first set of information resulting in said second set of information, wherein said information control criteria of the third recipient location includes at least a first rule identifying an action, a condition and a key, wherein the condition identifies an object and an attribute of the object, said object being a code portion included in the first set of information and the attribute identifying a particular application for which the code portion is to be customized, wherein the action is performed when the condition evaluates to true, the action including modifying the code portion for customized use with the particular application thereby generating a modified code portion included in the second set of information and performing any of encryption of the modified code portion and decryption of the code portion using the key; and sending the second set of information from the third recipient location to the fourth recipient location of the component used to manage the data storage system.