Patent ID: 7519322

Claim:
A method for tracking distribution of an electronic work, comprising: distributing said electronic work to a user at a first player with a distribution cookie for tracking a wireless broadcast distribution path of said electronic work and any responses by recipients of said electronic work along said wireless broadcast distribution path; detecting a localized broadcast of said electronic work with said distribution cookie from said first player at least one second player; accepting a separate copy of said distribution cookie from said first player at said at least one second player with said broadcast of said electronic work; updating each said separate copy of said distribution cookie at each said at least one second player with tracking information about a location of said at least one second player and with a response by a separate recipient at each said at least one second player to said electronic work, wherein said response comprises at least one from among a purchase of said electronic work and a rating of said electronic work; broadcasting said electronic work with each said separate copy of said distribution cookie from each said at least one second player to at least one next player; updating each said separate copy of said distribution cookie at each said second player with a time stamp of said broadcast of said electronic work to said at least one next player; responsive to detecting a network connection at least one of at said at least one second player and said at least one next player to a tracking server, providing said separate copy of said distribution cookie from at least one of said at least one second player and said at least one next player to said tracking server; analyzing each said separate copy of said distribution cookie received at said tracking server from at least one of said at least one second player and said at least one next player to determine at least one from among a distribution rate of said electronic work detected from each time stamp, a region of distribution of said electronic work detected from each said location, a rating average for said electronic work from ratings by any of said recipients of said electronic work, and any purchases of said electronic work made by any of said recipients of said electronic work; and providing said user at said first player with an electronic compensation based on a type of distribution of said electronic work by said user from said analysis of said distribution cookie.