Patent ID: 7716245

Claim:
A system, comprising: a multimedia content server configured to provide a user with a multimedia content requested by the user; and a network device configured to communicatively couple to the multimedia content server, the network device configured to obtain the requested multimedia content from the multimedia content server, the multimedia content server comprising: a storage unit configured to store one or more multimedia contents and one or more pairs of access IDs and encryption keys, each of the pairs being associated with the respective multimedia contents, the access ID identifying the associated multimedia content and having a limited number of access allowed times, the encryption key encrypting the associated multimedia content; a certification mark generation unit configured to generate an optically readable barcode associated with each of the multimedia contents, the barcode including an access ID identifying the associated multimedia content, a network address for the content server storing the associated multimedia content, and a decryption key decrypting the associated multimedia content encrypted with the associated encryption key; an encryption unit configured to encrypt, in response to a receipt of an access ID associated with the requested multimedia content in the storage unit from the network device, the multimedia content with an encryption key associated with the multimedia content; and a data delivery unit configured to transmit the encrypted multimedia content to the network device, the network device comprising: a reading unit configured to read, in response to a presentation of a barcode associated with the requested multimedia content and physically obtained by the user from a retailer, the barcode and to extract the access ID, the network address for the multimedia content server and the decryption key associated with the requested multimedia content; a transmission and reception unit configured to access the extracted network address, to transmit the extracted access ID to the multimedia content server, and to receive the requested multimedia content encrypted by the multimedia content server; and a decryption unit configured to decrypt the encrypted multimedia content with the extracted decryption key, wherein the network device is allowed to use a certain access ID to access the multimedia content associated with the certain access ID the limited number of access allowed times.