Patent ID: 6912528

Claim:
A system for facilitating distribution and accession of electronic files, comprising: (a) a service facility having an electronically accessible catalog of the electronic files, and a network interface for communicating over a communications network; (b) means for transmitting the catalog in response to a user request; (c) means for defining a customer account for a user to identify the user as a customer, to process payments from the customer and establish authorization for accessing an authorized plurality of the electronic files; (d) means for receiving from the network interface an order from the customer requesting selected ones of the electronic files; (e) means for enabling transmission of the selected files by the network interface to the customer as received data files; and (f) means for providing to the customer a player program for accessing the received data files, the player program being implemented for metering access to the received data files as limited by the authorization, wherein the means for defining a customer account comprises means for electronically interrogating a computer being used by the user to determine a default media player setting of that computer.