Patent ID: 7681238

Claim:
A method in which a user invokes, from a remote device, a protected file on a source device, wherein the user has a right to access the protected file, and wherein the protected file requires a locally stored license for invocation, the method comprising: locating the protected file on the source device, wherein the protected file is deemed locatable via a server message block (SMB) path of the protected file broadcasted by the source device; and accessing the located, protected file via a media player on the remote device, said accessing comprising: initiating the media player on the remote device upon selection of the protected file by the user; constructing, by the media player, a streaming uniform resource location (URL) based on the SMB path for streaming the protected file to the remote device without acquiring an additional license for the remote device, said constructing comprising constructing the streaming URL from a device document provided by the source device; requesting the protected file from the source device via the streaming URL; responding by the remote device to an authentication request from the source device; receiving by the remote device, in response to said responding, a physical path of the protected file from the source device, said physical path translated from the streaming URL by the source device; and streaming by the media player on the remote device the protected file via the physical path.