Patent ID: 8224705

Claim:
An electronic method for purchasing at least one item and/or service, comprising: establishing an account whereby a customer is credited with a predetermined amount of bandwidth usage; establishing a communication link with a vending system; and transmitting a stream of data using a packet watermark protocol, said transmitting comprising: generating a packet watermark associated with the stream of data comprising a plurality of packets, wherein the packet watermark enables identification of at least one of the plurality of packets; and combining the packet watermark with each of the plurality of packets to form watermarked packets; wherein the transmitting is for at least one of the following: selecting an item to be purchased; agreeing to a purchase value for the selected item; communicating to the vending system a request to purchase the selected item; and causing a debit to the account in an amount of bandwidth usage which corresponds to the agreed upon purchase value for the selected item.