Patent ID: 7797249

Claim:
A system for identifying transmissions of digital works comprising: a means for maintaining a database that stores an identification and identification information for each of a plurality of registered digital works; a means for monitoring a network for transmission of at least one packet-based digital signal including data of an unidentified digital work; a means for extracting at least one feature of data from said unidentified digital work from the at least one packet-based digital signal; a means for comparing said at least one extracted feature to said identification information for at least one of said plurality of registered digital works in said database; a means for determining whether said at least one extracted feature matches said identification information for one of said plurality of digital works responsive to said means of comparing; a means for determining said packet-based digital signal includes data of a registered work responsive to a determination that said at least one extracted feature matches said identification information for one of said plurality of registered digital works; a means for extracting a recipient address and a source address from the at least one packet-based digital signal and determining whether said recipient address is authorized to receive the registered work included in the at least one packet-based digital signal and whether the source address is authorized to transmit the registered work included in the at least one packet-based digital signal; and a means for performing an action based upon a determination of whether said packet-based digital signal includes a registered work.