Patent ID: 6950804

Claim:
A method of delivering content from a content delivery system to a user's terminal over a communication link, comprising: receiving a request from a user of the content delivery system to download a content item to the user's terminal over the communications link; checking with a tracking database the status of the content item relative to the user and determining if the user uploaded the content item and access to the content item by the user is free; in response to the status check in, providing at least two payment options to the user over the communication link after the results of the status check indicate that access to the content item is not free for the user, one of the payment options being the option to receive advertising with the content item in lieu of paying money to receive the content item; receiving a payment option selection from the user over the communication link; preparing the content item for download in accordance with the selected payment option, wherein preparation of the content item for downloading includes appending a targeted advertisement to the content item when the user selects to receive advertising as the payment option; and downloading the prepared content item from the content delivery system to the user's terminal over the communications link.