Patent ID: 7600266

Claim:
A multimedia jukebox system comprising: a plurality of media having media titles; at least one media reading drive; means for caching and storing contents of the plurality of media; means for selecting one of said plurality of media and placing said one of plurality of media into one of said at least one media reading drive; means for cataloging said plurality of media such that the number of copies M of the same media title is counted, said means for cataloging said plurality of media including means for determining if the media and media title are copy protected and means for determining if the media and media title are not copy protected; and means for transferring content of said plurality of media to a plurality of receiving devices including user machines comprising computers; said means for cataloging limits the number X of said receiving devices that are permitted access to any portion of any one title of said plurality of media, so that M is greater than or equal to X if the media and media title are copy protected; said means for cataloging comprises, for each media title, means for recording the copy protection status of each media title of said plurality of media; at least one of said plurality of media is rewritable; said media of the plurality of media is removable and replaceable in the at least one media reading drive to permit reading of content on the media in the media reading drive; and said means for cataloging said plurality of media permits unlimited number of user machines access to that media title if the requested media title is not copy protected so that multiple copies of the media title can be stored in the means for caching and storing contents of the plurality of media and accessed by the user machines.